From Distant Worlds
by Terron145
Summary: Four warriors find themselves within the land of Etria with no current means of returning from whence they came. Left with few leads, they come together to form a guild and explore the Yggdrasil Labyrinth in hopes of utilizing the Geomagnetic Fields within to return home.
1. Breaking Boundaries

**Disclaimer: I claim no rights to the Etrian Odyssey series.**

_Story Notes: This takes place in the setting of Etrian Odyssey Untold but from the perspective of Classic Mode._

**Chapter 1: Breaking Boundaries**

Just outside of the town of Etria, two foreign explorers were presently lying on the grassy plains, unconscious yet soon to awaken. The duo consisted of a man and woman, the former being eighteen years old and the latter twenty. With a groan the man was the first to awaken from his unconscious state. He sat himself up and shook his head to catch his bearings. He was a wizard, as one would initially assume from his black and blue leather attire, but the locals of this foreign land would likely peg him as an Alchemist, albeit an unconventional one, given the spear on his back and his lack of a rune gauntlet.

There was a grey fedora with two raven feathers tucked into either side resting upon his head, which he was quick to remove to run a hand through his disheveled dark brown hair. He sighed as he stared at the grass beneath him. His eyes were of two different colors; the right was brown while the left was…notably strange. The iris was a deep blood red but the truly off-putting aspect of it was the runic pattern that appeared to be engraved around his pupil.

With his mind clearing up, the man found himself growing wide eyed just before he whips his head to either side in search of someone. Luckily, the person he was looking for was a short distance off to his right. He donned his fedora, rose to his feet, and quickly dashed over to the unconscious woman. Upon reaching her, the man kneels down and flips the woman's unconscious body over to check her pulse. To his relief she was stable; actually, she seemed to be sleeping rather peacefully.

His companion fancies herself as a mercenary, though the locals of Etria would easily label her as a Dark Hunter, given her…unique choice of attire. She wore a sleeveless, midriff-exposing crop top, boy shorts, and skin-tight, thigh-high leather boots; all of these articles were black in color. Her long hair, red in color, was fashioned into two drill-like twin tails on either side of her head. At her right hip currently rested a whip; she normally carried a saber but wanted to train with a new weapon for the sake of versatility.

His eyes narrowed at the sight, considering that, as far as his memory is concerned, the two were just surrounded by a pack of wolves before they lost consciousness. He gives the woman a light shake and calls out to her, "Lucy? Lucy, wake up."

In an effort to ignore the call that was disturbing her slumber, the woman known as Lucy turned herself over in some attempt to soften the sound of the man's voice. He called out to her again, this time shaking her with a bit more force; to this, the woman gave a reply, albeit in her sleep; "I'll be up in a minute, Cyrus; just five more minutes…honeykins…"

The man, whose name is indeed Cyrus, struggled to hold back his laughter upon hearing that. '_That's the first time anyone's called me something like that,_' he thought to himself. He then sighed, feeling as if Lucy would stay asleep for an indefinite time if he let her have things her way. Cyrus then took his left hand and aimed it, as well as his sight, on a specific spot on the plains that wasn't too far away from Lucy and him.

With a snap of his fingers, a crack of thunder sounded and a small bolt of lightning struck the spot he was aiming for. However, Cyrus quickly noted that the bolt wasn't nearly as powerful as he intended it to be; he wasn't going for much power, mind, but he needed a sound loud enough to wake his companion. Despite this, Lucy seemed to stir and soon awakened thereafter. Her sparkling blue eyes met with Cyrus' and a blush formed on her face; a common sight, but one Cyrus still wasn't used to seeing.

"Are you alright, Milady? You appear to be feverish."

She scoffed at him and smiled before responding, "No, I'm quite fine." She sat herself up before Cyrus helped her to her feet. After taking a glance of the area around them, she asks, "Weren't we just surrounded by wolves?"

"Yeah, I remember summoning a pool of darkness beneath us with the intent of reappearing behind the pack to launch a counter offensive. Somehow, that pool of darkness teleported us somewhere completely different."

"Does that happen often?"

"That was the first time, I'm afraid."

"How about summoning another one?"

Cyrus nods to her and takes a few steps back. He holds his hands out before him, forming a triangle in between his two thumbs and his two index fingers. After focusing for a moment, he separates his hands and snaps the fingers of his left hand; nothing happens. Perplexed by this, Cyrus attempts the spell a few more times before ceasing his efforts. He stops to think for a minute before attempting other spells he has learned; for a reason he is unable to discern, he can only muster the most basic of his repertoire. Furthermore, he can only access fire, ice, and lightning.

After attempting a few more spells, the wizard sighs to himself and looks to his companion. She was giving him a look of concern, worried for his sudden and dramatic decrease in magic potential. "Despite this strange setback, we still have a predicament to contend with." He wanted to take Lucy's mind off of this subject and thought of a way to do so; seeing a town in the distance, he points to it and suggests, "Perhaps we can learn of our whereabouts in that town over there?" Seeing no reason to object, Lucy nods to him and the two set off for Etria.

Within the town two more individuals were roaming about amongst the abundance of explorers currently traversing the streets. They, too, found themselves in an environment unlike their own. Unlike Cyrus and Lucy, these two appeared to be even more out of place; they were both sixteen years old, which wasn't that unordinary for explorers traveling to Etria, but their outfits were not suited for battle, at least not in the eyes of the town's denizens.

The taller of the two, a young man with silver hair that reached down to his middle back and purple eyes that shimmered like sparks of electricity, currently wore a short-sleeved light purple shirt underneath a black vest, as well as a pair of dark purple jeans. Such attire made it difficult for other adventurers to discern his occupation, but upon seeing the katana at the boy's waist they immediately classify him as a Ronin.

The young woman standing next to him was wearing a dark blue sundress underneath some sort of dark purple cloak, almost black in appearance that was designed in such a way that it made her body appear as if it was comprised of flames. She possessed sparkling but timid blue eyes that she hid behind a pair of red, semi-rimmed glasses. Her raven-black hair was fashioned into two ponytails that ran parallel down to her middle back. Due to this cloak, as well as the strange crystalline bell that hanged from her black choker, other adventurers hail this young woman as a Hexer.

She looked around as she and her katana-wielding companion walked through the streets of Etria. It was a beautiful town filled to the brim with travelers going about their business. Its buildings were an interesting combination, with their designs being both rural and modern. Turning her attention to the young man to her left she speaks, "Nagato, do you have any idea where we ended up?"

The young man shrugs in response. "The last thing I can recall is a battle we were in. I was about to be hit by some sort of spell when I saw you and Cyrus-senpai running towards me. From the looks of things, you must have gotten to me first. Speaking of that, why did you charge in like that, Lily? You're not exactly built for taking damage."

"You were in trouble and I wanted to help; it wouldn't be right to let Cyrus jump in and take a bullet for you every time now would it?"

"I suppose not." A tinge of guilt suddenly welled up in Nagato as he heard Lily's comment. "I don't put him through that on purpose, you know."

"My, my, are you showing a sense of compassion? Do you actually care for someone?"

"Do not misunderstand me, Lily; I just don't want to be the one held accountable for Senpai's reckless actions…I don't care about him at all if that's what you're implying!"

"You're a terrible liar, you know that?"

"Shut up; look, let's just find some important people so we can figure out where we are, alright?"

Lily shrugs and lets out a short laugh at Nagato's expense before complying with his demands. After walking aimlessly for awhile, the two see a sight that is familiar for both of them, Cyrus. With a start, Lily calls out to him; happy to see that Cyrus responded, she and Nagato dash over to greet him. The man in question was rather surprised to see Nagato. He looks his younger friend up and down before saying, "Lord Nagato…when did you get taller than me? Furthermore, what are you wearing?"

Lucy noted Nagato's sudden change in apparel as well; "These don't match your usual Eastern garments; I've never seen anything like these clothes at all."

Nagato was quite confused by this encounter. "Alright…for starters, I've always been taller than you, Senpai; I'm the tallest one of our group, remember? Secondly, who is this beautiful woman standing before me and why have you not introduced me to her?"

"I could ask the same of you, Lord Nagato; the young lady at your side is quite cute."

Lily blushed at that but didn't reply. Nagato, however, had more to say, "And what's with this 'Lord' business? I'm not royalty."

"Did you hit your head or something? You…you're the current leader of the Yasujiro clan; you took over after your old man died in battle. Does none of this ring true?"

"My father is dead?!" Nagato sounded surprised, as was expected, but he also sounded somewhat pleased. That struck Cyrus as odd, considering how much the Nagato he knows respected his father. At somewhat of a loss, Cyrus steps up to Nagato, shows him his left eye, and inquires if the boy has ever seen it before. His reply: "What the Hell happened to your eye, bro?!"

Cyrus concludes, almost downtrodden, "Yeah, we definitely don't know each other. Judging from your choice of fashion, can we assume you two aren't from this town either?" The two promptly shake their heads at this question and explain that they, too, come from another world. Cyrus and Lucy expressed surprise at this, not because of the similar nature of their predicaments, but due to how Cyrus and Nagato resemble their respective counterparts.

Lucy quickly glances around the area and says, "Cyrus and I saw a rather large building around here when we first arrived; how about we check it out and see if we can learn anything?" The group didn't have any better options to consider so they nodded in approval and set out towards this building. People were flowing in and out of this building; some appeared to be seasoned adventurers while others had the look of novices. After exchanging one last glance with each other, the group of four nods and steps into the building as well.

_Author's Notes: The two pairs are each from two separate pieces I'm working on, but since this isn't the place for original works, I will try to keep them relatively grounded to what's going on in Etria._


	2. Treading New Ground

**Chapter 2: Treading New Ground**

Upon entry, the group is greeted by a lavishly decorated interior; the floor was clothed with a royal purple diamond patterned carpet with matching curtains for the windows. There were quite a number of other people standing within the building's walls, though most of them were sitting at tables as groups discussing their own business. Cyrus and Lily took a quick look around and noticed that many of these groups were studying maps that were rolled out onto their respective tables.

Towards the back of the establishment sat a desk with a portrait mounted on the wall behind it. The portrait itself couldn't be seen at the moment, due to the large chair blocking it from view, but what the group could see was the statue of a black cat perched at the top of it. It seemed out of place for some reason, but Cyrus, Lily, and Lucy quickly dismissed it; they liked cats and found the statue charming.

A man was sitting at the desk when the four arrived, but upon making eye contact with him, he rose from his seat and began walking directly towards them. He was well built and lightly decorated in silver armor. A pauldron adorned his right shoulder while a blue cape covered his left. His brown hair was neatly combed back and he wore a black eye-patch over his left eye; his visible eye, reddish-brown in color, seemed to be fixated into an intense glare as he observed the group before him, despite the smirk he wore on his face.

"Well now, you four look like you've never been to the Explorers Guild before." He crossed his arms as he addressed the group, his smile unchanging. "That said, you don't look like novices; I'm the Guildmaster here so I've seen enough adventurers to tell this sort of thing."

Knowing an initiative would need to be taken, Cyrus decides to speak for his new group; "This is indeed our first time in this guild, sir; this is our first time in this town in fact."

"Oh so you're new to Etria? Come to explore the labyrinth?"

It wasn't a pressing matter, but Cyrus' interest was piqued; "A labyrinth you say?"

"Yeah, the Yggdrasil Labyrinth; it's one of the center pieces here in Etria. Our whole economy is based around it."

"I see; forgive my ignorance, as the four of us are from lands very distant from here."

"Until today," Lucy says with a bit of shame, "we hadn't even heard of this town."

"Is that so?"

Nagato steps forward to address the Guildmaster before them. "We each ended up here after a strange teleporting mishap."

The Guildmaster thought that over for a moment before replying, "If that's the case, then maybe exploring the labyrinth will behoove you; there are these mysterious pillars known as Geomagnetic Fields. They have the power to teleport anyone who uses one back to Etria."

Lily seemed a bit excited at the idea of researching these mysterious pillars, which was something Cyrus couldn't help but smile at. "If we interact with these pillars we might be able to find a way back home?"

"I make no promises to that, but it's worth a shot."

Lucy asks, "Is there a catch to exploring the labyrinth? Aside from the risk of death?"

"There is; first, you need to form a guild; then you need permission from the Radha, the government here in Etria. Getting their permission is pretty simple; you just complete the initiation mission they give you. I can't in good conscience let you go into Yggdrasil with less than five members but luckily for you I have two more adventurers looking for a recruiting guild."

The Guildmaster proceeds to the back room located just beyond his desk and soon returns from it with two explorers following at either side of him. To his left was a young man around Cyrus' age; he had red hair that was cut short and hardened green eyes. He was currently clad in armor, combat boots, and a silver scarf; upon his back was a battle axe, one that looked suitable for throwing.

To the right of the Guildmaster was a woman, also around Cyrus' age, who was heavily decorated. He purple eyes were complemented by the golden jewelry she opted to adorn herself with, including a pair of earrings, several hoop-like rings that span around her arms, her intricate belt, and the band that held her greenish black hair in a ponytail. Her attire was almost non-existent, with her top revealing just about every part of her, save for her chest. Her pants were made of some kind of material that looked like silk; they were also transparent.

The axe-wielder was the first to step forward and introduce himself; "How's it going? I'm Alex, a Landsknecht." He takes a quick look around the group and follows, "It looks I'm wearing the most armor here so don't worry about letting me take a few hits for you guys."

"I'm Mitsuki, a Troubadour; my songs will keep the group feelin' nice and peppy and I can provide support from the back row with my bow."

"I'm Cyrus, a wiza- er, well, I guess here I'd be known as an Alchemist."

"I'm Lucy, a Dark Hunter…whatever that may entail."

"The name's Nagato; Ronin."

"I'm Lily, a Hexer; I'll keep the enemy debilitated so we won't get roughed up too badly."

The Guildmaster walks over to his desk and motions for the group of six to join him; once they reach the desk he pulls out a clipboard with some papers currently attached to it. "Have the leader write the name of the guild on this line at the top and then his or her name on the line right beneath it; the rest of you will write your names down in any order after that."`

Naturally, the group looks amongst itself to decide on this guild's leader. Lily is the first to actually voice an opinion; "I think Cyrus-senpai should be our leader."

Nagato's response was a rather dejected one, "Of course you'd choose him."

"Is that wrong of me? The Cyrus we know is a capable leader; I'm sure I don't need to remind you of that."

"But we can't be certain that this guy is just like ours."

Lucy opts to speak in Cyrus' place, knowing he won't speak highly of himself. "I know nothing of your Cyrus, but the one standing next to me has led his allies into battle against a number of threats, including armies, uncharted forests with dangerous beasts lurking within, and he's squared off alone against one of the dragon goddesses of our world."

That last piece of information turned some heads in Cyrus' direction, including the Guildmaster's; Cyrus' face turned a slight red at the attention he was receiving and looked towards the ground in embarrassment. "To be fair," he says as he pushes his fingers together, "I'm almost certain that the Scarlet Dragoon was taking it easy on me."

Mitsuki, with a smile on her face, walks over to Cyrus and places a hand on his shoulder. "If Lily and Lucy are cool with him leading us, I'm all for it."

Alex lets a smirk betray his lips as he nods to himself. "Your confidence could definitely use some work, but you look like you have a good head on your shoulders."

"Fine, we're in your care, Senpai…again…"

'_I guess I can't back down from this…_' Cyrus then pulled a pen from his own pocket and motioned it towards the paper attached to the clipboard; he stops, turns to his new team and asks, "How does the name 'Seekers' sound to you guys?" The group doesn't object to this, leaving Cyrus to write the name of the guild and sign his own name just below it. The others are quick to follow and soon the clipboard is returned to the Guildmaster.

Pleased with the documentation, the Guildmaster sets the clipboard back on his desk and says, "Alright, you lot are set to go; make sure you stop by Shilleka's Goods right after your visit to Radha Hall; you'll need to stock up on supplies before you head out."

The group nods to the Guildmaster's advice and departs from the Explorers Guild. Lucy and Cyrus look around outside to discern where the Radha Hall was located, soon locating the sight of the rather grandiose building that towered above any other here in Etria. With a nod, the group sets off for it. A short trip finds them standing within the lobby area of Radha Hall, which gave off the feeling of a cathedral; the sunlight beaming in from the windows above bathed the stone that the building was comprised of, giving it a soothing pale blue hue.

Before long, a young man dressed in a mix of armor and official attire stepped into the lobby area to greet them. He had orange hair and blue eyes that hid behind a pair of orange semi-rimmed glasses. He looked to the Seekers Guild with a smile and addressed them; "Greetings! I take it that you are a new guild looking to explore the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, yes? I am Quinn, the subaltern of Etria; how may I assist you?"

As the leader, Cyrus steps forward and bows to the subaltern, which was the custom of his land. "Well met, sir; we were told by the Guildmaster that we were to receive an initiation mission from the Radha."

"Ah yes, one moment if you will." Quinn then steps away for a few moments before returning with a stack of parchment commonly used in drawing maps. "The initiation mission is quite simple; you are to map the first floor of the labyrinth. Those incapable of performing this task are better off not venturing inside. With that in mind," he looks over the guild once more and continues, "You all don't strike me as novices; what draws you to the Labyrinth?"

Cyrus, with the help of Nagato and Lucy, explain to the subaltern their current situation. "I see," Quinn says with a contemplative look on his face. "Actually, if you could somehow alter the Geomagnetic Fields to expand their range to faraway lands we could draw in more potential explorers. You each claim to be from different worlds altogether, yes? What makes you so certain of that?" Quinn, as any person would, had his doubts on the validity of these claims.

"It is rather difficult to explain without some form of proof," Nagato admits.

"What few examples we have," Cyrus explains, "are how Nagato and I resemble our apparent counterparts…and I doubt those will be viewed as relevant."

"Don't forget your catastrophic decrease in magical strength, Cyrus," Lucy quickly adds.

Quinn raised an eyebrow at that; "You are an Alchemist, young man?"

"That's what everyone in Etria calls me, yes, but I'm actually a wizard where I hail from."

"He's usually capable of summoning massive lightning storms and frigid blizzards; he can cast a great deal of his spells by merely snapping his fingers."

To give a demonstration, Cyrus snaps his fingers and creates a ball of flame that levitates above his palm. He changes the color from red to blue, then black, and then back to red again before dispersing it. Quinn, marveling at the display, says, "That was quite impressive; here in Etria, only the strongest of Alchemists can call upon the power of nature without their special gauntlets; and you imply that your usual spells are stronger than that?"

"Ever since Lucy and I arrived in Etria, I've only been able to cast the most basic of spells, and only those from fire, ice, and lightning."

"So I'm not the only one," Nagato says with a sigh of relief. "I use fire and earth magic where I'm from, but for some reason I can't use my spells here."

"What's more," Lily adds, "is that Nagato now has access to ice and lightning, two elements he could never channel before; my curses seem to be unaffected by this land though."

Nagato shrugs at Lily's explanation and explains, "I can't really do much with any of the three at the moment; the element fades away just as quickly as I can channel it. It's…rather insulting, considering the power of my flames that I'm so used to."

Having been quiet this whole time, Alex speaks up and suggests, "Why not purchase a practice gauntlet from Shilleka?"

Mitsuki nods in agreement. "Yeah, if you can adapt to the new surroundings you both may be able to get some of your skill back."

"When Cyrus figures out how to channel the power of nature he could teach you how to do the same."

Nagato and Cyrus look to each other and nod before the leader turns his attention back to the subaltern. "It looks like we've made our decision, sir. The Seekers Guild shall tackle both the labyrinth and investigate the potential of these Geomagnetic Fields."

"Excellent; we'll rely on you. I must also mention that you will not find a Geomagnetic Field on the first stratum; the first one lies within the second stratum known as the Primitive Jungle. I wish you good luck in your explorations."

Cyrus bows to Quinn once again and departs with his guild. Alex, taking the lead of the group, says, "A trip to Shilleka's is in order; we'll need to stock up on medicine before we head out." The group is then led by Alex to a shop not too far away from the Explorers Guild. Upon stepping inside, the group is greeted with a building that is filled to the brim with weapons, shields, and armors of varying craftsmanship. Standing in the center of this facility was a young woman dressed in what the six immediately concluded to be tribal garments; she was about as clad as Mitsuki, which wasn't saying much. Her eyes were grey, complementing her hair, black and cut short, which was fashioned into a ponytail.

"H'llo!" She greeted the group cheerfully, speaking with an accent Lily and Nagato seemed to be rather familiar with. As soon as she sees Alex and Mitsuki, she says, "Hey you two, I see ya both found a guild ta join, huh?" The four members unfamiliar with Shilleka briefly introduce themselves. "Da name's Shilleka; I run t'is here store. I got armor, weapons, and even medicine for your adventurin' needs. As you may already know, the economy here runs on da labyrinth, my shop included; if you bring me materials you find within da labyrinth I can make stuff out of them."

Cyrus was observing the wares of the shop while listening to Shilleka's explanation. Though he meant to keep this in his thoughts, he says aloud, "I really like it here."

"You a fan of da place, young man?"

"I run a forge and goldsmith shop back home so I feel…right being in a place like this."

"Is d'at right? Maybe when you're not busy explorin' da labyrinth you could drop by and help with da shop; t'ings get pretty busy around here."

"Not a bad proposition. Actually, there is something I was looking to purchase; do you have any practice gauntlets for fresh Alchemists?"

"You don't look like a novice, but sure, I can get one for ya; why a practice one if ya don't mind my askin'?"

"The magic I'm used to using works…differently here in Etria, so I have to study a new craft from scratch." His team assumed he was saddened by this, but the look on Cyrus' face portrayed otherwise; he looked ready to take on this new challenge and Shilleka could tell.

"You wait here; I'll have a gauntlet for ya in just a sec." She then disappeared into a back room of the store; before long she returns behind the counter and places the item onto it. The gauntlet she picked out was of a basic yet intricate design; red and black in color, the gauntlet itself currently sported no design patterns on it. She also puts six bottles of medicine just in front of the gauntlet, figuring the group would need them considering that, out of this entire party, there was no dedicated medic.

Cyrus approaches the counter and looks expectantly at Shilleka, silently asking if he may try the gauntlet on; she nods to him with a smile on her face and he picks up the gauntlet. It fit quite nicely onto his left hand, although he couldn't really snap his fingers while wearing it. Realizing that this is a quirk that he'll never be able to rid himself of, he makes a mental note to make some alterations to this later.

"I should also tell ya t'at all Alchemists inscribe a personal rune into t'eir gauntlets; it helps them channel da power of nature."

Cyrus smiles at that and says, "I have just the rune to use; how much for the gauntlet and medicine?"

"Da gauntlet will run ya one t'ousand while t'ose six Medica cost twenty each, so your total is 1,120 ental." Cyrus pulls out his wallet and prepares to hand Shilleka her pay when his eyes slowly widen in fear. "Is t'er somethin' wrong?"

"Ental is just a fancy word for gold…right?"

"Yeah, your gold's good here."

Cyrus lets out a loud sigh of relief at that. "That's a relief; I was afraid we'd be screwed on currency here."

"You four aren't from Etria?"

"It's a long story and a tough one to explain," Nagato says.

"Maybe you can tell me about it later; 'til then, see you after your initiation mission's done!"

The Seekers Guild bids farewell to Shilleka and exits her shop. Before they reach a considerable distance, Cyrus asks his team, "Do any of you want to grab a meal before we set out?" Surprisingly, everyone comments that they ate before arriving at the Explorers Guild. "I see. Well then, I guess we'll investigate any local bars after our mission is complete."

With that decided, the group inspects their gear one last time and departs from Etria; their destination is now the entrance of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, an opening in the earth that is reminiscent of the maw of a beast.

_Author's Notes__: I know there was a deal of framework in these first two chapters, but I hope you are looking forward to the first trip into the labyrinth._


	3. The Journey Begins

_Author's Notes__: I should make mention that while I am going to update this as frequently as I can, I cannot guarantee that chapters will be released daily._

**Chapter 3: The Journey Begins**

The trek to the Yggdrasil Labyrinth took a surprisingly shorter amount of time than the Seekers Guild had anticipated; it was roughly an hour's walk with no form of opposition present to bar the path. As the group arrives at the entrance they can see quite a few other adventurers present; the majority of them had the look of novices; Nagato figured that the powerful guilds wouldn't, rather, shouldn't bother wasting their time with the upper floors if there were more floors to conquer.

Cyrus and Nagato lacked the optimistic countenance that was commonly seen on the faces of those taking their first steps into the labyrinth; in place of this, the two sported rather stoic expressions. They didn't appear to be nervous, but Mitsuki decided to ask, "Is there something the matter you two?"

Cyrus, who was previously lost in thought, had his concentration broken, leaving him as the first to reply. "Nothing in particular, Mitsuki; I was just thinking about some things."

Nagato shrugs and responds, "I'm fine, just a bit disinterested in this labyrinth; I don't exactly anticipate a challenge from these starting floors."

Alex looks to Nagato and opts to warn him; "The mutated monsters of the labyrinth are a lot stronger than the ones we face here in the world above."

"I wouldn't take them lightly if I were you," Mitsuki adds.

Nagato directs his gaze to the grass below as he walks to consider these two warnings. '_I'm not entirely convinced with just words,_' he thought; '_it would be far better to meet these creatures in battle; I'll decide how tough they are._' The group, alongside another guild, descends the staircase leading into the first stratum, which Alex referred to as "The Emerald Grove". The guild is greeted with the sight of a lush and vibrant forest; an abundance of healthy and densely packed trees filled the place, along with an assortment of beautiful flowers strewn about as far as the eye could see. The sun was still shining within this labyrinth despite it being underground, but the team hadn't traveled that far down yet so they dismissed this.

It wasn't a pertinent matter, but Cyrus, upon touching down on the soft grass of the stratum, looked back to the staircase and questioned why it was there. '_It looks natural, but if that's the case, who set this all up…and for what purpose?_'

Nagato glances behind and, still not used to seeing this Cyrus as a different person, says, "You're over-thinking it, Senpai, just like you always do."

"Yeah, you're probably right; let's get moving."

Lucy asks, "Who's going to be our cartographer?"

"I'll do it," Cyrus says with a sense of finality.

Alex was a bit off put by this. "You're the leader; you should be in battle with us."

"My magic will likely be a detriment to us since I have yet to practice with it; for battles where I am not present, I'm placing you in charge Alex."

"Wait, what? Why me?"

"Your occupation is suited around teamwork; if you call the shots the party can help you do your job effectively. A party with synergy is the best in my experience."

Lucy made an attempt to assure her comrade; "I'm sure you'll be fine, Alex."

"Thanks for that, but I've never led people into battle before; Cyrus, are you sure about this?"

"Positive."

"I was afraid you'd say that; alright, I'm not one to defy my boss. I trust you on this."

"Good, that is all I ask; you'll do quite fine. Now, if you'll excuse me…" he then unrolled a scroll of parchment given to his guild by Quinn and then pulled out a pen. He dramatically throws his hands into the air and strikes some sort of pose as he stands in the center of a clearing; he looks back to his team and says, in a suddenly suave and deep voice, "I have a map to draw." Alex and Mitsuki stare at their leader in total confusion; Lily smiles warmly at him, reminiscing on how the Cyrus she knows acts in a similar manner; Nagato and Lucy merely shake their heads in disappointment.

The group proceeds through the first floor, keeping on the lookout as Cyrus draws the map of the first floor in the most theatrical way he can think of. As he completes a spin and finishes drawing the borders of the room he and his team just exited, a pink rat tall enough for its head to reach Nagato's knee suddenly lunges from the bushes to attack the seemingly vulnerable cartographer of Seekers. Though lost in his work, Cyrus starts humming a tune to himself and delivers a roundhouse kick to the rat's face, knocking two of its fangs to the grass beneath him and sending the creature flying back into the bushes.

The small fangs catch Cyrus' eye, causing him to momentarily cease his charting and pick them up; he then places them both into a small pouch attached to his belt. He nods to himself, rather pleased with this find and then resumes mapping. Nagato currently sported a look of incredulity on his face. "Are you kidding me?! Senpai never looks that happy!"

Lily promptly slams her palm to her face. "That's what you're worried about?!"

"Our leader is weird."

"Oh, trust me, Alex; you have yet to see the true extent of Cyrus' insanity."

"Lucy, why did you say that so cheerfully?"

She lets out a malicious giggle in response; "Oh, you'll find out."

Having reached a diverging path, the group seems at a lost on how to proceed; Cyrus quickly says, "The path to the left will lead us to a dead end, judging from the dimensions of the map." He glances to the right, points to the path, and says, "The correct path to follow is that way, but let's go straight ahead since I see a soldier over there."

Mitsuki looks to the path on the left, seeing that it continues for quite a distance and calls for a left turn. "You sure that's a dead end, Cyrus?"

"Not entirely; I'm sure there's something of interest there, likely left behind by fellow explorers. However, those items are also likely to be guarded by enemies; we'll investigate later when we're used to our strategies."

After that explanation the group approaches the soldier; he explains to them that he's been ordered by the Radha to guard the portion of the first floor that lies behind him. Upon being asked why, he says that it is to prevent those who have not passed the Radha's initiation mission from traversing deeper into the labyrinth and getting themselves killed. He then directs the group's attention to the map in Cyrus' hands; though it seemed quite detailed, he motions his finger in a general area and says, "When you've mapped the area I just traced, come back and show me your map."

"Will do, sir; team, let's get moving."

They each nod to Cyrus before backtracking and heading down the path Cyrus determined would lead to progress. The path leads quite a distance ahead, much farther than the only remaining path the group opted to pass up. The team eventually comes to a left turn but it leads to a dead end of no particular interest; the next fork leads to the left and right. The area to the left is not relevant to what the soldier wishes to see but Nagato voices his interest in seeing what lies beyond the path.

"We'll head up there before we check out the second floor, Nagato; you alright with waiting that long?"

"Sure, why not?" He glances down the path to the right and says, "Is that a spring down there?"

Mitsuki had to strain her eyes to see that far, but confirmed, "Yeah you're right; you have a good pair of eyes, Nagato."

'_I actually smelled it, but I might want to keep that under wraps for now._'

The Ronin blushes and rubs the back of his head in embarrassment before pressing on with the rest of his team. They soon reach this spring of water; it appeared to be quite safe to drink, but none of them were too sure. Just as Cyrus was about to step forward and test the water himself, Alex approaches it and dips a finger into the spring. '_It's cool to the touch._' He then cups a small portion into his hands and takes a sip; he finds himself full of energy and says, "This is pretty good; you all should have some too!"

His teammates comply with this request and take a sip of the water. They all agree that the water seems to invigorate them, provoking Cyrus to mark the spring on the map for future reference. Continuing on with the exploration, the group comes across a strange door that they are unable to open; it has a violet crystal floating and spinning before it, one that seemed to be guarded by the vines that entangled it. Cyrus marks it down in hopes that the team finds a means of opening this door in the future.

Further down the path the team is led to a small area that appears to be good for gathering materials from the labyrinth; unfortunately, only Cyrus has knowledge on such matters, and he currently lacked the tools he needed to work. Regardless, he marked this chopping point for later. What's more, Lily directed everyone's attention to a group of yellow flowers that led them back to the entrance of the floor, allowing them to move some sort of obstruction that had blocked their view previously.

The group discovered another chopping point further into the floor, although there was no shortcut from this one to the floor's entrance. The place looked like a nice area to rest in, but the group, not feeling the slightest bit of exhaustion, shrugged and went about their business. With the designated area looking quite filled out, the group agrees to return to the dead end they neglected from earlier. Once they turn the corner leading to what Cyrus anticipated to be a dead end they found just that, as well as a lone boot. Alex prepared to approach it when Cyrus stepped ahead and held his arm out.

"Something the matter, Cyrus?"

"Everyone, get your weapons ready; I'm about to play decoy to an ambush."

Lucy looked around but was unable to find anything of interest. "Where's the enemy?"

"I can feel them lurking underground near that boot."

Mitsuki looked understandably worried. "You sure we should take that boot then? We could always just leave it and mark this section of the map."

"I can see a gleam reflecting from something within the boot. We can handle this attack if we work together."

Satisfied with Cyrus' confidence, Lucy took her whip in hand and prepared for battle. Seeing this, the others prepared themselves as well. Cyrus looks to his group one last time before stepping up to the boot and gently picking it up. He shook it slightly to find that there was indeed something within it and that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. He empties the contents of the boot onto the grass to find a cut of some sort of mineral. He narrows his vision in an attempt to discern what it was he just found. '_This looks like Pyroxene; not a bad find._'

Satisfied, he places the Pyroxene into the same pouch the small fangs were stored in and places a hand to the earth. He closes his eyes to sense the presence of the creatures below; they were stirring, with their activity increasing in frequency with each passing second. Cyrus opens his eyes and flips away from the boot. As he does so, three creatures burst from the ground where the leader of Seekers once sat. These three malicious creatures appeared to be moles with blue and pink bodies, gleaming yellow eyes lacking any other features, and absurdly sharp claws.

Alex takes the opportunity to throw his axe at one of the moles, only to be surprised as his target deflects it with one claw. The axe returns to Alex as if it were a boomerang, much to the surprise of Cyrus and Lily. Cyrus, still crouched to the ground, quickly aims his new gauntlet at his enemies and uses it to fire a burst of electricity from his fingertips. He doesn't succeed in hitting the moles, but does cause them to spread apart.

Nagato draws his katana and charges in with a battle cry. Much to his surprise one of the moles lunged at him and attempted an aerial attack; Nagato expected his katana to cleave through both the mole's claws and the mole itself, but was in for a surprise when the mole held his blade at bay. The mole flipped itself onto the blade of the katana and attempted another jump strike; it would have likely been better off just slashing at Nagato for as soon it returned to the air it found its head being pierced by an arrow from Mitsuki.

Alex attempted to throw his axe again but the result was the same as before. Seeing this, Lily begins to chant in a language that no one in the group is familiar with. As she mutters the last few lines of her incantation, the two remaining moles begin to act slightly different. They both suddenly looked incredibly tired, as if they had exhausted all of their strength.

"The Sapping Curse seems to work just fine; take 'em out while they're vulnerable."

To show that Lily didn't need to repeat herself, Alex quickly tosses him axe for the third time; the mole made an attempt to deflect it but instead found the axe buried in its tiny chest. It violently lashed out in a vain effort to remove the axe before its lifeless corpse soon slumped to the bloodied grass beneath it. The third mole lunges at Nagato, who was prepared to launch a counterattack, but both found themselves shocked when a whip wrapped around the mole's head and forcibly twisted it, causing a slight cracking sound as the mole let out a soft death cry and fell to the grass below.

Lucy gave a few motions of her wrist and her whip was suddenly fully wrapped in her hands and soon thereafter placed back to her hip. Alex walks over to his kill and removes his axe from its corpse. '_I'll have to practice that technique a bit more,_' he notes to himself. The group reconvenes and checks to make sure no injuries were sustained on either Nagato or Cyrus.

The leader smiles and says, "Good work out there, guys; you're already pretty good with that whip, Milady."

"Thanks, but you slipped up again; you said you'd call me 'Lucy' when I'm on the clock as a mercenary."

"Yeah, sorry about that; force of habit."

Nagato and Alex ask, in unison, "What are you when you're off the clock?"

"I suppose there's no harm in telling you all; I'm a princess. My real name is Lucille Jade."

Lucy fully expected shocked expressions from the group, but Nagato's was beyond her imagination. "Hold up, are you telling me that princesses are badasses in your world? Senpai, when we find a way home I'm taking an immediate vacation to your place."

"Sure, I don't mind; there's plenty of room at my place and I'm told that I'm a good cook."

Alex, trying to draw the attention back to what he thought was a pressing matter, asks, "And you're now in Etria? Isn't your territory going to be in trouble with you absent?"

Lucy looks towards the ground with sadness in her eyes. "No, not at all; my younger sister is next in line to the throne and does a splendid job of handling things. I'm not needed over there…I'd rather not discuss why, at least not at present."

"Don't forget that the ordinary citizens love both Lucille and Lucy; you're far from being 'not needed', Lucy."

"I'll try to remember that; thanks Cyrus."

Lily steps over to Cyrus and looks over the map he worked to draw. "Wow, this looks pretty good, especially when I recall that you were dancing like a loon as you drew this."

"Oh, this is just a rough draft; I'll work on a better one when we find lodging for the night."

Mitsuki takes her own glance at the map and notes the amount of detail that went into it. "This is just a draft?!"

"Well, yeah, I still need to make annotations and note where the various creatures of this floor commonly show up."

"You're a bit much for me, Senpai."

"Better I do too much than too little, right Lily?"

"I can't argue with that; come on, we should show our work to the guard now, right?"

Everyone agrees to this, leaving the group to quickly make its way back to the Radha soldier that was previously barring their path. He looks at the map, looks to Cyrus, and then says, "Weren't you dancing around like a maniac when you drew this? This map looks pretty damn good despite that. Anyway, you lot are good to go in my book; go show this to the officials at the Radha."

The guard said his piece but also stood aside, as if he was beckoning the group to push forward and see what lies on the second floor. Cyrus sidesteps to see a door similar to the one barred by the violet crystal from before, only this door was barred by a white crystal. He marks it on the map and draws the room it resides in before bowing to the guard and turning to the labyrinth's exit. His team shrugs at this and quickly catches up to him.

The Seekers guild returns to Etria and immediately makes for the Radha Hall. Quinn was standing in the lobby conversing with another group of adventurers; he seemed to finish his business with them as they made their way for the exit of the building as the Seekers Guild approached. "Ah, you have returned; that was quicker than I had expected." Cyrus hands the map over to Quinn for reviewing. The subaltern scans his eyes over the parchment; with a pleased expression on his face, he says, "Yes, these mapping skills shall suffice; I think your group will fare just fine in the labyrinth if you put this much effort into your work."

Quinn returns the map to Cyrus, who rolls it up and places it into a bag for safe keeping. "The Seekers Guild is hereby free to explore the labyrinth; please be careful during your investigation, and check in with us periodically for updates. We just might have work that your guild will be suitable for. Oh, before I forget," Quinn then pulls a letter from his coat and hands it to Cyrus; "this is an official letter that shows your guild is sanctioned by the Radha. With it, you can purchase important items from Shilleka's Goods as well as handle requests from the Golden Deer Pub."

"We'll have to pay those facilities a visit as soon as we can; thank you, sir." The guild bids farewell to the subaltern and departs from Radha Hall. "I think we should celebrate our first completed mission with a meal; what say you all?" His guild responds with a loud cheer, to which he replies, "I'm glad we're on the same page; onward! To the Golden Deer Pub!"

_Author's Notes__: There is something I should clarify for those who have played the game and may be wondering; yes, I know that there can only be five people in the labyrinth at a time. Cyrus will be something akin to a solo adventurer while the others will act as an actual team. Aside from battles where he'll be swapped in for someone else, he'll primarily fill the cartographer spot._


	4. Spoils of War

**Chapter 4: Spoils of War**

A short trek from the Radha Hall leads the Seekers Guild to a rather large building adorned with an impressive looking sign in the form of a golden deer looking towards the direction of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Mitsuki and Alex assure the rest of the group that they were in the right place and were the first to step inside of the facility. Inside they found a well furnished bar, one with dim lighting to set a rather peaceful atmosphere. Much to Mitsuki's surprise, there were a few tables that were vacant today, an uncommon sight, she called it.

As the team approached the bar, a young woman stepped from the back area of the pub. She looked towards the Seekers Guild with a warm smile on her face; her eyes were brown, as well as her long hair, which was styled in such a way that two of her locks hanged just in front of her ears, framing the sides of her head. She wore a black choker with violet frills upon her neck, which matched the likewise black and violet-frilled dress she outfitted herself with.

"Hey there; welcome to the Golden Deer Pub!" Lucy waited for Cyrus to introduce himself so the rest of the guild could follow, but she soon notices that he, along with Nagato and Alex, were too busy staring at the woman who just greeted them with stunned and blushing faces. Said woman let out a slight giggle before continuing, "You boys are going to make this older woman blush if you keep staring like that."

Realizing that he was making a fool of himself in front of not one but four pretty women, Cyrus quickly slaps his hands to his cheeks to regain his composure. He clears his throat and replies, "That doesn't happen often; forgive me. My name's Cyrus and we are the Seekers Guild." After taking a slight elbow in the ribs, Nagato and Alex snapped out of their own reverie and introduced themselves to the woman behind the counter, shortly followed by the girls.

"It's nice to meet you all; I'm Valerie, the owner of this bar. Since you're here, I take it you have permission from the Radha to take quests from me?" Cyrus thought that over for a moment and then remembered the letter Quinn had given to him. He hands it over to Valerie, who takes a moment to read it before saying, "Yep, you kiddos are good to go. Now, aside from food and drink, I also put up requests from citizens in need. There are a lot of problems here in Etria that are related to the labyrinth, problems that are best handled by you adventurers."

Cyrus and Lucy seemed quite familiar with this sort of custom; the latter goes on to say, "I guess some things in life are universal."

Nagato then asks, "Are these quests dangerous?"

"They can be, which is why people who can't pass the Radha's initiation aren't allowed to attempt these; I actually have a few jobs ready right now if you're interested."

Cyrus seemed eager to work on these requests. "Where do I sign up," he immediately asks.

"Aren't we ready to go? Well now, take a look at that bulletin board to my left."

Valerie directs the team's attention to the bulletin board to show them a myriad of requests that have been put up by various people. Most were requests from ordinary citizens while a few were from fellow adventurers. Four in particular caught Cyrus' eye. He points out each of them to Valerie and asks if it'd be acceptable for his team to tackle them. She agrees and explains the details of the requests.

The first client is a leathersmith who's running low on materials to work with; he requests a soft hide. The next client needs a cut of hardwood to make repairs to a house; after him is a request from a fellow adventurer to procure some "holy water" from the first floor; the last request comes from the owner of the local inn here in Etria; Valerie tells the group that he requires three small fangs.

"With that settled, can I get you kids anything?"

Cyrus tilted his head inquisitively. "You refer to us as kids but you don't strike me as being terribly old. Actually, you look to be the same age my sister would be if she were still alive."

"I agree," Alex said with a nod; "you can't be a day older than twenty-five."

"Stop it, you're making me blush."

Cyrus suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder; he glances back nervously, feeling an incredible malice emanating behind him. '_I sure hope that's Nagato getting angry that I'm making a move before him._' No such luck; the person staring at him with eyes of blazing fury was Lucy. '_Aw crap._' An awkward smile graced Cyrus' lips as he said, "Oh, hey there, Lucy…what's up?"

"If you purchase a meal for your beloved guild I'll happily look over your foolish transgression."

"Boss," Cyrus quickly calls as he looks to Valerie; he was suddenly sweating bullets. "We'd like to order one of your finest meals."

"A Roast of War? Coming right up, kiddos; it'll run you 200 ental though."

"Oh he can pay that price, Lady Valerie; for his own sake, he has no choice."

"Ooh, sounds like someone's whipped," Nagato teased.

Lily scoffed at that and replied, "As if you're one to talk, Nagato; need I remind you of Mina?"

"No, no you do not."

Cyrus wipes his brow, points to Nagato, and lets out a laugh; "Lady Mina has you whipped even in a different world."

After being seated at a table, the guild is soon presented with a huge platter consisting primarily of a roasted bison harvested from the lower floors of the first stratum. Nagato's mouth watered at the sight; Alex couldn't help but stare in awe of the meal. "This is a War Bison, right?" Valerie nods to him, to which he replies, "I can't wait to fight one of these." The team then digs into its meal with vigor; a third of the feast is put away before anyone opts to speak a word, with Alex taking the fore. "Cyrus, I noticed that you use a spear; is it common for wizards to use such unconventional weapons in your world?"

To Alex's surprise, Cyrus denied this. "I'm one of the few wizards you'll meet in Erdboden who fights the way I do; I take to the front lines."

"Isn't that really dangerous?" Mitsuki asks.

"It can be, yes, but that's why I train; to make sure I'm strong enough to handle myself and support my allies."

Lily looks to Lucy and says, "You said you're a princess, right? I can imagine you using a sword, but you were trained in how to use a whip too?"

"Oh, not at all; my instructor taught me the way of the blade. My skills with the whip thus far have been self-taught."

"That is most impressive," Nagato says with a strange sense of pride.

"Actually," Cyrus says after taking a sip of his ale, "Alex, could you tell me how you tossed your axe like a boomerang? I've never seen something like that done without magic before."

The Landsknecht dons a smirk on his face and starts twirling the fork in his grip between his fingers. "It's all in the wrist, my friend."

Mitsuki was about to take another bite of her meal when she saw Nagato's katana in its scabbard and recalled something she had been meaning to ask; "Nagato, Lily, how come you two don't look dressed for battle?"

The question was…odd, coming from Mitsuki, given her own choice of "combat wear", but Lily answered first; "Where we come from, armor doesn't really do much to protect you from an enemy's most powerful spells."

"If you need to deal with an oncoming weapon, you gotta learn how to block with your own; better yet, you should learn how to dodge with the best of them."

"You're quite similar to the Nagato we know," Lucy said as she gave a light shake of the cup in her hand. "He favors speed over power but makes up for it by trading all of his defense for what he lacks in the latter."

"Hey Lily? May I ask where you learned those hexes of yours?"

"Don't you remember, Senpai? You're the one who taugh- oh right, that was the Cyrus I know. Anyway, Cyrus taught me; he owned this really old book on hexing and taught me how to read it and use the spells within."

"How quaint, I taught someone from my world a similar set of arts."

"Hey uh…" Alex seemed a bit nervous about what he needed to ask; "how do we intend to gather Hardwood? I don't know if any of us have training as botanists."

Cyrus pounds a fist to his chest and says, "Leave that to me; I can handle all forms of gathering due to my upbringing."

"You can?"

"Indeed. You'd be surprised at what skills you need in order to make a living as a blacksmith and goldsmith. I'll handle the botany while the rest of you handle the other three quests."

Nagato prepares to get another cut of the meal for himself when he realizes that the team has devoured the entire roast. His face droops into a frown as he says, "I guess we should get going then."

Cyrus and Lucy wipe their faces and say, in unison; "I have no objections to that."

Alex burps before patting his stomach; "My compliments to our lovely chef."

He failed to realize that Valerie was standing right behind him and promptly jumped in his seat when she said, "I appreciate the compliment, young man, but flattery will only get you so far." Alex rubs the back of his head in embarrassment at that and prepares to leave with the rest of his guild. "You all come again now!"

The group waves to the proprietress as they exit her establishment. Before returning to the labyrinth, the guild stops by Shilleka's Goods to buy an axe for Cyrus to use in his gathering ventures. Returning to the labyrinth, Cyrus steps ahead of the group and partially steps into the shortcut they discovered from before. Lucy asks, "Are you going to be alright by yourself, Cyrus?"

"I will, Lucy; there's no need to worry. Be sure to watch each other's backs while you're out here and I'll see you all when you get back." They each nod to him and he disappears into the forest beyond the shortcut. Alex, remembering his role as the off-leader, takes point and directs the party further into the first floor. Lily temporarily takes up the mantle as the cartographer since Cyrus is no longer with the group. On the way to the eastern section of the floor that Nagato wished to explore, Alex calls for the group to halt its advance; he hears a rustling in the bushes and anticipates an attack.

He was right; three of the tall pink rats from earlier burst from the bushes and stand before the party. Lucy moves to the front to stand between Alex and Nagato, leaving Lily and Mitsuki to defend the rear line. Nagato shouts another battle cry and charges into the fray with his katana drawn; Lucy, not used to this sort of reckless abandon, slightly bites her bottom lip before charging in to give Nagato cover. Alex gives his axe a toss to distract one of the rats; he fully expected the rat to deflect the attack, so he dashed up to it and went for a punt as his axe was sent back into the air. The rat crashes against a tree but is otherwise still conscious.

Nagato attempted to deliver a downward slash to both rats, but they both jumped back to avoid the strike. One of the rats jumped into the air intent on sending its claws through Nagato's face only to find Lucy's whip wrapped around its waist. "Nagato, now's your chance!" The Dark Hunter then pulls the rat towards her, giving Nagato a clear opportunity to cut it down, which he happily takes. Lily chants another one of her curses and as she finishes, the remaining two rats find themselves not only moving sluggishly, but also incredibly sick.

The two suddenly looked as if they were having trouble breathing, as if the air around them was now toxic. Despite this, the rats decided to push forward with their assault. One rat attempted to lunge at Alex, seeing how his attention was turned elsewhere; its effort was rewarded with an axe slamming into its skull and sending its lifeless corpse crashing to the ground. The other rat lunges as well and is met with Nagato's blade running through its chest. It weakly claws at the blade for a few seconds before succumbing to its injuries and drawing its last breath.

Nagato performs a swift motion in which he wrenches his blade from the rat, which rids it of any blood and allows the dead rat to hit the ground it hovered over. He sheathes his katana and asks, "You alright, Alex?"

"Yeah, thanks for the save, Nagato; everybody else is unharmed, yes?" Once he sees that the others are fine, he looks to the rats they just worked to slay. "We need soft hides and three fangs; we should be able to gather these from our slain adversaries." The team then works to skin the rats and remove their fangs. With that done, they proceed to the upper area they neglected before; inside this area they found three boxes that seemed to be unopened. Alex and Nagato agree to step ahead of the others in case these boxes turned out to be trapped.

To their joy, these boxes were just ordinary treasure chests. One contained some sort of red talisman; the middle chest contained what appeared to be a bottle of nectar; and the last chest contained a magnifying glass that Mitsuki identified as an Analysis Lens. Lily marked down the treasure chests for posterity and the group opts to trek back to the spring they discovered earlier. As they take a drink, Lily takes a glance at the spring and says, "Do you think the client was talking about this water here?"

Mitsuki mentions that "We have a free canteen so why not take some with us?"

Nagato agrees by saying, "It's worth a shot."

The group was in agreement and stored some of the supposed holy water away for later. They review their objectives and are quite pleased to realize that their second trek to the labyrinth was a success. Lily leads the team back to the shortcut and they depart from the labyrinth. Upon arriving back in Etria, Nagato suggests that they stop at the inn first, which the others agree to. The guild makes its way to a building on the far side of town; stepping inside, they are greeted by a spacious lobby area with a young man garbed in green robes standing behind the counter. "Welcome to the Rooster Inn!" He seemed like a friendly sort, sporting a warm smile on his face as he greeted his potential patrons.

Lucy steps forward and gives a slight bow to the man behind the counter. "Good day to you, sir; may I ask if an Alchemist entered this building earlier? His name is Cyrus and he leads the Seekers Guild."

He puts a hand to his chin and looks up to the ceiling to gather his thoughts. Before long, he replies, "Ah yes, the young man with the runic spear, right?"

"That's the one."

"I take it that you're all his guild members? He rented out a room for you all and everything."

Nagato steps up to the counter and says, "Before that, we actually have something for you." Nagato then presents a bag filled with small fangs to the innkeeper, which he graciously accepts.

"Thank you so much; now I can get back to growing vegetables in my garden."

"Do you grow anything in particular?"

"I like to cater to the different tastes of my patrons so I try to have as much variety as possible."

"Nagato, I thought you hated vegetables?"

"Lily, doesn't everybody?"

"Cyrus left the inn sometime ago; he said he'd be on the outskirts of Etria if anyone needed him. I heard your team dove into the labyrinth twice today; perhaps you'd like a rest?"

Alex rolled his shoulders and said, "Not just yet; we're going to turn these reports in to Valerie and then we'll be back here."

"Very well; you're welcome here at anytime."

The guild then departs from the Rooster Inn and reports in to Valerie for a slew of rewards. They soon return to the inn after having a few drinks but don't find their leader present. The team reasons that Cyrus must still be on the outskirts of Etria tending to whatever business he needed to handle, but it was starting to get dark out, leaving Lily worried about him at the very least.

The Hexer stood from the bed she was sitting on and said, "I'll go out and check on him."

Nagato was lounging on a sofa on the side of the room. He kicks his feet, barely glancing in Lily's direction as he says, "I'm telling you he'll be fine, but suit yourself."

Mitsuki was likewise taking the time to relax, but offered more caring advice than Nagato; "Be careful out there, Lily; you and Cyrus aren't built for defense…not that I'm one to talk."

"I'll be back soon and hopefully with Cyrus-senpai in tow."

She then departed from the inn and started her trek towards the outskirts of Etria. Lily was used to seeing the streets of a big city being active during the night hours, but seeing such activity here in the smaller town of Etria really put into perspective just how important the labyrinth was to the people around her. Even as she exited the gates of the town she could see a surprisingly large number of adventurers heading to and from the Yggdrasil Labyrinth.

In an area farther away from both the town and the labyrinth, she could see bolts of lightning striking the ground. '_Those don't look like natural bolts,_' she thought to herself. She makes way for the source of the lightning and soon it comes into view. The man she was seeking, the leader of her guild, was currently practicing the application of his alchemy, as well as trying to use that alchemy in conjunction with his spear. While he was finally capable of calling forth more than just tiny sparks of electricity, his combination skills still left much to be desired.

Lily watched him practice from a distance until she saw Cyrus attempt to imbue the blade of his spear with lightning magic. The runes engraved into his spear began to glow yellow, as did the runic pattern that seemed to be engraved in his left eye. Lily couldn't tell if the rune in his eye was actually glowing or if it was a trick of the light, but she watched in anticipation for what he'd follow up with.

Cyrus then spun his spear towards the ground and stabbed into it. His intent was to release the lightning magic and send chunks of the earth flying through the air; instead, the magic converged at a single point and exploded, sending Cyrus flying a considerable distance. Lily couldn't help but wince at the sight; she then noticed that he had quite a few cuts and bruises, some of which were still fresh and leaking negligible amounts of blood.

Cyrus picks himself up and shakes his head to clear his thoughts. '_Holy crap that hurt; it's nothing compared to what Terri usually does to me though. I need to push through and get some of my skill back._' He rises to his feet, walks over to his spear, and wrenches it from the ground. Looking over his weapon, he thinks to himself, '_Perhaps I should focus on figuring out how to make this new magic work instead of balancing my training…_' He nods to this and straps his spear to his back.

Seeing this, Lily takes the opportunity to approach Cyrus. She asks, "Are you alright, Senpai?"

Cyrus turns to meet her and replies, "Oh, these injuries aren't anything I'm not already used to."

"I see…have you been practicing out here since you left the labyrinth?"

"Pretty much, yes; you look troubled; did something happen with the others?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that at all! I was just…a bit worried about you. You've been out here by yourself for awhile now."

"Yeah, sorry about that; I figured I'd make a suitable amount of progress in a much shorter timeframe. Clearly, I've grown lax and conceited in my ways since I gained power in Erdboden."

"You don't strike me as the type to get lazy with his training."

"I'd like to think that I'm not, but I've definitely overestimated my skill this time."

Lily crosses her arms and tilts her head as she gives Cyrus a doubtful look. "Maybe the problem is how you're looking at this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I bet you're training as if you're still in Erdboden, right? Try thinking of a way to train under a new set of rules; one that takes advantage of how this world works."

The novice Alchemist pondered that for a moment before his eyes widened; he appeared to have reached an answer thanks to Lily's advice. "I'll be damned; it was such a simple conclusion. I think I understand your point, Lily."

She smiles warmly at Cyrus before walking over and locking arms with him. "That's all well and good, Senpai, but I'm sure as Hell not letting you continue practicing with those injuries. Well, that, and it's getting late."

"I don't suppose I can talk you into letting me stay out for a few more hours?"

"Not a chance."

"What if I asked really nicely? I'll even help you out with your hexes…we can make a date out of it? Just you and me?"

"Ooh, that last one sounds real tempting, but no; you're coming back to the inn with me."

"And if I resist or try to flee?"

"A quick Sapping Curse should make you more compliant." She was smiling lovingly at him as she said that, which made Cyrus all the more nervous. A blush appeared on his face as he looked to the ground in defeat. Having resigned to Lily's will, Cyrus voices his surrender. Lily nods to this and says, "I'm glad you see things my way, Senpai; I'll hold you to that date, so don't you forget it~"

"My word, it doesn't matter what world you hail from; women are still terrifying creatures."

Cyrus suddenly found Lily's grip on his arm intensify as she said, "I'll take that as a compliment. Now then, let's get going."


	5. Dyed in Blood

_Author's Notes: After a little over a week of an unexpected hiatus (sorry about that), we are set to continue the journey. Remember to leave a review if you have any comments on how I can improve this; I appreciate the criticism._

**Chapter 5: Dyed in Blood**

The following morning finds the Seekers Guild back in the labyrinth, this time exploring what lies on the second floor. The paths the group traveled seemed to feel more constricted than those from the first, forcing them to proceed in a tighter formation as well as with a slight sense of apprehension. There were requests from the pub to take care of, but the majority of them appeared to be based around gathering materials, a task which the team still lacked dedicated means of handling. However, there was one particular quest that Lily wanted to focus on.

Rounding a corner, Alex suddenly comes to a halt and holds his arm out to prevent his team from proceeding any further. "You guys feel that sense of dread in the air?" They silently nod to him, somewhat unnerved and not wanting to run the risk of whatever might be around this corner. Cyrus puts the map in his grip away and peers around the bend to see what awaited them; what he saw caused him to raise an eyebrow.

Before him was a blue creature with the body of a deer but the features of other various creatures. Focusing his vision, Cyrus then realizes that this beast more closely resembles an antelope, but '_That doesn't explain the rest of it…_' The horns of this beast, bronze in color, resembled the designs of unorthodox weapons he was used to seeing in his own world. They gave the forest dweller an imposing look, as did the cream-colored lion-like mane that it wore around its head. Perhaps the most intimidating aspect of this creature is its eyes, orange in color and fierce in appearance. There was something about how the eyes were nothing more than featureless, blazing orange spheres that made Cyrus nervous.

Mitsuki sees the creature as well and says, "Aw crap, it's an F.O.E…a Ragelope no less."

Nagato immediately asks, "The Hell's an F.O.E?"

"It stands for "Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens", but I don't know what that actually means."

Not taking his eyes off the Ragelope, Cyrus replies, "I must admit that the phrase is difficult to translate, but what I can tell you is that it describes an approaching terror…one that is both powerful and hostile."

"You know that language, too, Senpai?"

"I have to study Latin in order to use my stronger spells, Lily, at least the ones from my world. How do you know it?"

"Well, you're a huge nerd in my world who's always studying new languages."

Lucy stifles her laughter and says, "Yeah, that sounds like you, Cyrus."

A hand clutching his axe, Alex asks, "What's the plan, team?"

"We wait," Cyrus begins sternly; "We wait and observe it; it might not be prudent to fight one of these now and we have no way of knowing how many more there are. We can likely find a way to slip past it when it drops its guard." In agreement, the group waits for the Ragelope to approach them, letting out a collective sigh of relief as the creature walks right past them and continues to seemingly patrol its territory. Slipping past it into another path, Nagato mentions having seen a treasure chest further ahead where the Ragelope patrols. "I guess we'll come back for it later."

Continuing on leads them to the patrolling area of a second Ragelope; using the same strategy as before, the group slips behind the beast while its attention is elsewhere and continues to move forward. That was the plan, but Lily noticed what appeared to be a hand-woven basket sitting on the ground. Remembering the quest from Valerie that her team agreed to, she quickly dashes over to pick it up but a shiver is sent running down her spine as the Ragelope roars to the sky in anger. She looks to the basket in her hands and then to the Ragelope that was charging at her. '_Trespassing is fine but taking a basket that doesn't belong to it is a berserk button? The Hell kind of logic is that?!_'

The blazing orange eyes seemed to stare daggers into Lily and rendered her too frozen with fear to move. The others see this but don't know how to react. Nagato prepares to charge in with his katana drawn, but then the roar of another Ragelope sounds behind him. "Oh shit, there's another one!"

Cyrus crouches to the ground and aims his gauntlet close to the ground in front of him; his back was turned towards Lily's direction. "Alex, Lily will be with the rest of you in a moment; you take this Ragelope and I'll handle the second one."

"You plan to fight that thing by yourself?"

"If I have to I will; I won't let the rest of you get hurt." He then channels energy into the gauntlet and fires a burst of fire magic at the ground. The resulting small explosion propels him backwards towards the Ragelope charging at Lily. He aligns himself so that he can see his target and preps his right fist before slamming it into the head of the unsuspecting Ragelope, which sends it off course and crashing to the ground. Lily, her fear passing, quickly picks herself up and runs closer to Cyrus.

"You sure you're going to be alright by yourself?"

"I am, yes; hurry to the others and give them some backup; they'll kill the other one faster with you there."

"You got it."

Lily then dashes to the aid of the other members of her guild, leaving Cyrus standing before a Ragelope that was slowly but surely recovering from its punch to the head. She quickly chants one of her curses, resulting in the Ragelope putting up significantly less of a struggle in moving Nagato out of its way. Nagato was currently using the flat end of his katana to hold the beast at bay, giving Mitsuki time to distance herself from the threat and start singing. As she sings her tune, Nagato, Alex, and Lucy suddenly find themselves invigorated with a surge of strength. Lucy opts to use her whip to hold the Ragelope's head in place, leaving Alex with an opening. Going to Nagato's aid, Alex jumps above the Ragelope and slams his axe on its head.

Surprisingly, the axe doesn't slice through the monster's head, although it does leave the Ragelope disoriented and staggering away from the group. It attempts to stomp on the ground in front of it, believing Nagato to be standing within range. The group watches as the beast stomps in its delirious fury before Alex and Nagato look to each other; the former nods to the latter, prompting Nagato to dash to the Ragelope's side and decapitate it with a swift strike of his blade.

After breathing a sigh of relief, the group turns around to see Cyrus holding his own against the other Ragelope…by actually holding it by the horns as he wrestles with it. As the group watches their leader with dumfounded expressions, the Ragelope roars at its adversary, who responds with a bear-like roar of his own. Nagato, his stare narrowing, comments, "Lily? Our Senpai is weird no matter what world he comes from."

"Perhaps this one was raised by wolves?"

He scoffs in disgust. "And just what are you trying to imply?!"

She flinches at that and blushes. "Oops, sorry; I kinda forgot you're a half-wolf."

Alex, Lucy, and Mitsuki then look to Nagato and ask, in unison, "Nagato's a what?"

Nagato rubs the back of his head and shifts his neck before replying, "We'll explain when our leader gets back."

The Ragelope jerks its horns from Cyrus' grip and turns around to deliver a mule kick to his face. The Alchemist preps for this by defensively crossing his arms in front of him; he takes the hit and is sent flying towards his team. He quickly recovers to his feet and draws his spear. "Cyrus, do you need some help?"

He glances back to Lucy to reveal a fiery look in his eye. "Don't worry; I got this." She merely nods to him and he returns to his battle. The others wanted to join in, but didn't want to risk missing what crazy thing Cyrus would do next. The two combatants charge at each other with another roar, the Ragelope intending to run through Cyrus with its horns. The Alchemist, drawing closer to his target, stabs his spear into the ground and uses it as leverage to kick the Ragelope in the face. Following up with this, he keeps a grip on his grounded spear and spins around it before propelling himself into the air.

The Ragelope recovers from the kick to the face and looks around in confusion when it realizes Cyrus is no longer present. Its confusion, as well as its life, would quickly be brought to an end as Cyrus crashes down on top of it with his gauntlet at the ready. It glowed with electric energy and, upon making contact with the Ragelope, sent a surge of electricity through the creature's body, killing it. As it fell to the ground and Cyrus flipped back to his spear, the group could see electricity being slightly discharged from the Ragelope's body. The leader of the guild straps his spear to his back and walks back to his team.

Mitsuki places her hands on her hips and says, "Sweet moves out there, boss; you practice pole dancing in your world?"

Lily blushes and stares at the ground in embarrassment as she says, "He's pretty damn good at it too…"

Lucy, however, looked rather upset. "And why haven't I gotten a personal demonstration of these talents of yours, Cyrus?"

Cyrus looks to each of them and replies, "No I don't; thank you, Lily, I aim to please; you never asked."

"Has Lady Gwenivere seen these talents for herself? Answer me!"

With a smile, he replies, "Not any personal demonstrations, no; only the ones I've done in battle."

"Good. From this day forward you shall take requests…and I shall provide proper compensation if you so desire; that's an order from the House of Jade."

He bows to her and responds, "Your wish is my command, Milady."

"Senpai, this princess is freaky…I like her!"

"I bet you do, Nagato; I bet you do."

"We got the basket so that's enough exploration for this trip; let's head back and regroup. You guys are alright, yes?"

The group nods and proceeds to the first floor. Upon arriving, they all suddenly feel an incredible sense of malice in the air. A large, red mantis with one of its scythes missing suddenly flies past them. Having recalled a mission they received from Radha Hall, Alex says, "Wait a minute, wasn't that the mantis the Radha wanted exterminated?"

Cyrus, already casually walking in the direction the mantis was heading, replies, "Might as well kill it before we go back to Etria…we should split up; this enemy seems to be rather quick so it would be better for us to try and corner it. I'll trap it on this side so the rest of you should take the path to the south." They nod to him and quickly dash to the path they were instructed to take. Cyrus nods to himself as he sees his comrades off before running off towards the direction the mantis fled to.

He was keeping a close eye on the creature but somehow lost track of it. Looking around, he thinks to himself, '_Did it take a turn up ahead? That would lead…to those treasure chests the others found, but a monster can't open doors, right?_' He looks to his left and sees the path that leads to an eventual dead end. '_It couldn't have gone this way…I would have seen it._' Despite his certainty, Cyrus proceeds in the direction of this dead end, feeling it would be better to confirm his suspicion. Reaching the turning point, he slightly turns his head to the left, expecting the blood-red mantis to be standing at the dead end. What he found turned out to be nothing. He sighs to himself and says, "Lady Lucille and Lady Gwenivere were right; I am overly paranoid."

He turns around and promptly gets smacked into a tree. Still slumped towards the ground, Cyrus quickly looks up to see the mantis brandishing its sole scythe of a left arm and making what appeared to be a smirk on its face. The Alchemist slowly picks himself up and narrows his gaze at the beast. Drawing his spear, Cyrus says, "I don't know how you masked your presence so well, but I'll have you know that no beast arrogantly smirks at Cyrus Coelistis and lives to tell the tale!" Upon seeing the mantis shrug its shoulder at him, Cyrus lets a battle cry escape his throat as he charges directly at his adversary.

The rest of his group wasn't too far away; Nagato, with his heightened sense of hearing, notices Cyrus' battle cry first and rushes off ahead of the others. He arrives on the scene fairly quickly, just in time to see the mantis take a kick to the face well enough to retaliate…by shifting backwards and smacking a still airborne Cyrus into the same tree it did before. '_I see Senpai's luck with trees is still as bad as ever._' He draws his katana and charges towards the mantis while screaming, "Face me you worthless scum!"

The mantis was going to charge in and cut Cyrus down, but upon hearing Nagato's telling shout turns around to block an aerial strike that would have surely took its head off. Feeling a greater deal of force than was expected, the beast makes some sort of hissing sound at Nagato, who merely snarls in kind. Nagato flips away and quickly lands on his feet to avoid the next slash from the mantis. The two enter another lock as the rest of the team catches up; Cyrus rises to his feet and shakes his head to regain his senses.

When he realizes that Nagato is about to lose his balance, due to the mantis gaining the upper hand, Cyrus takes his spear, spins it in his grip for a moment, and then tosses it at the mantis with all of his might. Not waiting to see the results of his efforts, he activates a vial of fire energy in his gauntlet and runs towards the opponent at full speed. The mantis immediately feels a sharp stinging sensation in its back and lifts its blade from Nagato's katana while screeching in pain. Nagato reaches his neck out to the side to see Cyrus quickly approaching; he nods to himself and jumps back.

Cyrus sees this motion and, as if reading the mind of his ally, prepares for a combination attack. He jumps towards the unsuspecting mantis and punches it in the face with his gauntlet, which causes a small fiery explosion that sends the beast stumbling backwards. Before jumping away from his adversary, Cyrus lands on the mantis' shoulder, wrenches his spear from its back, and fires off another explosion from his gauntlet; the recoil of the second shot sends him flying towards the ground next to Nagato, where he lands on his feet.

As their eyes meet, Cyrus and Nagato nod to each other and charge towards the recovering mantis. Seeing that the mantis is charging as well, Cyrus dashes a short distance ahead of Nagato, takes a knee, and holds both of his hands out in a cupped manner. Nagato recognizes this and lightly jumps to Cyrus, which results in the latter sending his ally flying into the air. Cyrus glances back to see the mantis' scythe coming from his left and quickly launches himself into the air using another fiery explosion.

He performs a flip in the air and lands on the beast's arm while facing it. Dashing ahead, Cyrus quickly activates a vial of lightning energy and jumps into the air. Nagato returns his katana to its scabbard, only to quickly draw it again as he spins towards the mantis' remaining arm, slicing it off with next to no resistance. The mantis naturally screeches to the sky at the pain it suddenly felt, but this would result in its undoing, for Cyrus slammed his gauntlet into the creature's open maw and unleashed a bolt of lightning into it. With nary a whimper, the mantis falls to the ground, dead. Cyrus lands next to Nagato, who sheathes his katana and promptly high-fives his team's leader.

The rest of the team runs up to meet them both, with Mitsuki and Lily clearly out of breath. The former says, "We thought you might need some help so we rushed here." She holds her hand up to take a second to catch her breath before continuing, "Nagato, you run way too damn fast; is that a perk of being part wolf or is that natural?"

"It's natural."

Cyrus stands in place for a moment before donning a look of bewilderment on his face. Turning to Nagato he asks, "You're part wolf?"

Nagato nervously responds, "Yeah…I'm a half-demon where I come from."

"Ah, I see." Nagato recoils at this, having expected Cyrus to be off put by the reveal. "Be sure to tell us about any special powers you may have later, OK? I'm looking forward to hearing about this." Seeing Nagato's rather dumbfounded expression, Cyrus laughs out loud and slaps his ally on the shoulder. He then pats him on the back and says, "It doesn't matter what you are or where you come from; you're still my reliable little bro, and I'll be counting on you both in and out of battle."

"I- I uh…thanks, Cyrus."

"Think nothing of it."

Mitsuki smirks mischievously at the two as she says, "If the two of you are done with your bromance we should get to informing the Radha about this."

Alex walks over to the dead mantis and picks up its severed arm. "This will make for good proof…and a fancy weapon."

Lily looks over the scythe tucked oddly underneath Alex's arm and says, "You look so funny carrying that, but in a cute way."

"What are you…thanks." He blushes and turns away from her.

Cyrus and Nagato take a moment to clean their weapons; once that's finished they assume a formation to guard the currently vulnerable Alex from harm. With the group in order they proceed towards the exit of the labyrinth. As they walk, suddenly Lily's stomach growls with the ferocity of a bear. Embarrassed, she coolly tries to play it off; "Anybody up for a bite to eat after this?" The rest of the group responds with their stomachs, which growl with a similar ferocity. "I'm glad we're all in agreement," she says with a smile.


	6. A New Perspective

_Author's Notes: I honestly was not expecting what was supposed to be a week of rest to turn into nearly a month of a hiatus. I apologize for the chapter gap; unexpected events occurred. I'd also like to thank Marcatissimo for submitting two reviews in the time I was gone. Both gave me a few things to think about, so I'll be sure to use the input to better the story._

**Chapter 6: A New Perspective**

Stepping into the Radha Hall greets the party with the sight of Subaltern Quinn speaking with a young woman who appeared to be dressed in a maid uniform. Even from a distance the group could discern that this woman had short-cut purple hair and a matching pair of beautiful purple eyes. The group steps forward; Quinn's attention is almost immediately caught by the giant, blood-red scythe tucked underneath Alex's arm. He looks to the young woman with purple hair with a smile and says, "Well now, it looks like the pressing matter has been attended to." He then calls for two soldiers, who retrieve the scythe from Alex and proceed further into the reaches of the establishment.

Alex dejectedly looks on as the Etrian soldiers disappeared from sight. '_That would have made a cool weapon, too._'

"We're grateful for your hard work, members of Seekers."

Lucy places her hands on her hips and says, "I find it odd that a nobleman would hire a stranger for a task such as this; it's uncommon where I'm from."

The purple-haired woman seemed interested in this if her puzzled expression was anything to go by. "Is that so? Pray tell, what are the customs in your land?"

"Nobles usually fight their own battles; if their honor is in question and they are unable to defend it with their own skill, a personal knight would be sent in."

Nagato reeled back at this, a look of shock upon his face. "What kind of noble gets off his own ass to do work?" Lucy glares at him, prompting him to follow, "Oh right, you're a princess…well, you're weird." She scoffs, offended at such a claim. Lucy looks to Cyrus, who was busy stifling his laughter. She pouts at him cutely before turning away from him.

Returning to the matter at hand, Quinn says, "For your reward in completing this task, we have something special for you all." He motions to the woman next to him, prompting her to step forward and perform a curtsy. "You may have noticed during your venture around Etria an empty manor. Said manor belongs to a nobleman, a member of the Sheldon family to be precise."

Thinking on the name, Mitsuki says, "Oh, I know about them; they're one of the bigger families in Ontario, right?"

Quinn nods to her and the purple-haired woman steps forward to speak. "I am a maid in the service of House Sheldon. I have come here to Etria to render service to the guild responsible for handling the master's mission; my name is Rosa." The group, minus Lucy, stares at this woman in disbelief at the revelation of her purpose. "Is something wrong everyone? You look rather perplexed."

Nagato was the first to shake himself out of his stupor. "You're saying we get a maid and a mansion?"

"That is correct, young master."

Cyrus thinks on this for a moment and asks, "Do you have any other maids assisting you?" Rosa shakes her head at this, leaving Cyrus to follow, "Are you going to be alright handling that mansion by yourself? I mean, we plan to take the Radha up on their offer and will tend to the place as well, but…"

"Your concern is much appreciated, young master, but I can assure you that I will be quite alright."

"Cyrus, you should know quite well the tenacity of maids."

"I do, Lucy, truly, but forcing such an onus on one person is something I can't condone."

Nagato and Lucy simultaneously scoff in response to this. The former then responds, "Practice what you preach, Senpai."

Quinn breaks his stoic demeanor and lets a short laugh escape him. Quickly collecting himself, he asks, "Cyrus, are you known for overworking yourself?" The young Alchemist stood there for a moment, trying to think of a way to lie to the Subaltern without being entirely dishonest. This effort proved to be futile, as the blush on his face told everyone present all they needed to know.

As he stood there, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, the guild's leader eventually says, "I don't know if we'd just get in the way, but we'd be happy to help you out with the manor, Rosa, since we're all going to be using it as a base of operations." He then holds out his hand, a smile forming on his face as he looks to Rosa. "My name's Cyrus; I'm the leader of the Seekers Guild; I look forward to working with you."

"Likewise," Rosa replies while shaking Cyrus' hand.

"Now then, the documentation for your new manor has been mostly filled out, but you'll have to decide on a name."

Lily jumped in place, presenting forth an idea before the others could begin to brainstorm. "Since we're the Seekers Guild, how about calling our personal base The Archive?"

Cyrus and Alex snapped their fingers at the suggestion, large grins forming on both of their faces. "That's a great idea!" they shouted in unison.

"Then you are in agreement?" Upon seeing the guild nod, Quinn presents them with a small stack of papers, which Cyrus silently expresses his gratitude for; the last time he had paperwork the stack of papers was taller than he was. He wrote the name of the manor onto an empty line and signed his name next to Rosa's; the rest of the guild followed shortly after him. With the paperwork dealt with, the Subaltern received the papers back from the guild and bid them farewell, leaving them to depart from the Radha Hall with Rosa.

A short trek with Rosa at the fore leads the group to a manor, one that, while not nearly as large as Nagato and Alex had imagined, was still fairly large for the small guild placed in charge of it. Stepping inside greets them all with a well furnished building, with a small armory stationed on the west side of the main floor, a large meeting table stationed at the center of the room, as well as a medium-sized fireplace seated by that table. There was a staircase as well, which led to parts currently unknown.

Rosa opens a nearby closet, pulls out a few taped-up boxes, and places each of them on the meeting table. As she cuts them open, she explains that, "Inside these boxes are Grimoire Stones; I was instructed on how to handle these along with Grimoire Synthesis, as these stones are quite useful for adventurers such as yourselves. The previous owners of this mansion were researchers working with House Sheldon, and opted to leave this portion of their belongings here."

Cyrus walks over to the table and picks out a random Grimoire Stone from the boxes before him. The one he fishes out is somewhat intricate in appearance, purple in color and in the guise of a flower in bloom. Rotating his wrist to get a full view of the stone in his grip, Cyrus looks over the details before thinking aloud, "What exactly are these stones used for?"

Rosa responds, "Grimoire Stones are curious items that house abilities inside of them. The Grimoire you currently hold is a Beast Grimoire, a flawless one at that. There is but one skill currently on that stone but it is at its maximum potential."

"May I ask how you'll know what abilities are on the stone?"

"Place it to your head and concentrate, young master."

Doing as instructed, Cyrus closes his eyes and lightly presses the stone to his forehead. In a few moments, a vision enters his mind. A small animal, presumably an armadillo, was walking around what Cyrus could only figure was the insides of some gigantic creature. The surroundings were fleshy in appearance with red being such a dominant color that it was almost nauseating to look at. Though small, the creature managed to look intimidating, largely thanks to the spikes that extended from its plated backside. Suddenly, the creature darts forward at a speed one would not imagine it capable of reaching.

The words, "Quick Strike" resound in Cyrus' mind as the vision goes dark. Opening his eyes he removes the Grimoire Stone from his forehead and looks around the manor. Everything appeared to be the same, much to his relief. "That was intriguing," Cyrus remarks while placing the stone onto the table in front of him. "You mentioned synthesis as well, right Madame Rosa? What does that entail?"

Rosa's response is to return to the closet and pull out a white scroll of paper. She returns to the table and rolls out the scroll in her hand, which reveals some sort of printed trio of magic circles evenly lined up to form an equilateral triangle, along with a square resting in-between them all. Rosa motions for the others to move closer to the table, which they do.

She points to the circle at the top of the formation and says, "Grimoire Synthesis requires three Grimoire Stones. The stones are placed within these three circles you see here, with the top being the base. The base determines how many skill slots the product will have." Motioning to the circle on the bottom left, she continues, "This is where you will place the Grimoire you wish to synthesize. The base and the second stone are the only two you may extract skills from so take care with your selection."

"And what of the third one?"

"The third stone is used as the catalyst. Sadly, no skills may be extracted from it, but, curiously, the stone imparts knowledge of various pieces of equipment to the new Grimoire Stone. You are all free to make use of these Grimoire Stones however you like, so please feel free to experiment."

Sifting through the boxes of stones, Cyrus asks, "Any limitations we should be aware of?"

"Yes, any Grimoire Stone may only have a maximum of seven skills placed on it."

Nagato asks, "What if we need to get more of these?"

"You would have to go to the Labyrinth and do battle with monsters while carrying a Grimoire Stone with you. When the stone shines there will be a chance for a new one to spawn."

Lily and Cyrus glance at each other and don mischievous grins on their faces. Alex and Mitsuki were too busy trying to grasp the concept of these stones to notice this, but Nagato and Lucy stared at the two with blank expressions. They both knew that those grins could only mean one thing; Cyrus and Lily were going to shift into new personalities, ones that enjoyed rambling on about science and experiments. There was also a very high chance that small explosions were going to occur in the near future, which these two understandably did not wish to be a part of.

Placing a hand on the shoulder of both Mitsuki and Alex, Nagato and Lucy say, "We should probably get to the pub."

"Oh right, we have a quest to turn in, don't we?"

Alex, seeing that Cyrus and Lily have taken seats right next to each other, asks, "You two sounded the hungriest out of the group…you sure you don't wanna grab a bite?"

"We'll just make sandwiches or something," Lily quickly responds.

"I'll see to their needs; you all have nothing to worry about; please, don't overstrain yourselves while you're gone."

Seeing that Cyrus and Lily were already grabbing Grimoire Stones, Nagato starts pulling Alex towards the door, a look of nervousness quickly taking over his countenance. "We'll do just that, Rosa; thanks for the concern!" He then whispers in a shouting manner, his words delivered swiftly and almost incoherently, "Come on, let's get the Hell out of here!"

Lucy, practically carrying Mitsuki by the waist, quickly says, "We'll be back soon; don't wait up!" They then departed from the manor and shut the door behind them. Lucy sets Mitsuki down on her feet and breathes a sigh of relief along with Nagato. "We dodged quite an arrow with that one."

"Yeah, you're telling me…how long should we keep away?"

"Three hours seems like a good amount of time."

"So uh…" Mitsuki stretches for a moment, feeling a bit awkward with the question she wished to ask. "What was that about?" Lucy and Nagato briefly explain that Lily and Cyrus are mad scientists, to which Mitsuki simply replies, "Ah, that makes sense."

Alex shrugs and says, "Well then, I guess we're not heading back to the manor for awhile; to the pub!"

A cheer escapes the four and they make their way for the Golden Deer Pub; they all recount the battle with the two Ragelopes to Valerie upon turning in their report as well as the basket of the client. "You kids fought two of those things? Wait…what happened to Cyrus and Lily? Don't tell me th-" Nagato cuts her off and assures her that the two are still quite alive. "Oh, that's a relief, so how did you take on two of them?"

"Our leader took on one of them by himself while the rest of us handled the second."

"…you're kidding." Even the nearby patrons expressed disbelief at Nagato's claim. The Seekers Guild wasn't well known yet, but people knew enough about it to understand that their leader was an Alchemist, a class not known for its physical prowess. "You kiddos are still new to the labyrinth; you shouldn't take on monsters that strong so soon."

"Yeah, our leader made it a point not to fight the first Ragelope we ran into." Alex sighs at that before taking a swig from his mug. "But he was pretty quick to abandon all of that when he saw that Lily was in trouble. I'd be lying if I said I expected him to survive, but hey, he proved me wrong."

"I guess I'm guilty of being skeptical too," Mitsuki admits sheepishly. "Then again, it makes sense for him to handle a Ragelope since he's fought dragons before." She had a short laugh at that before looking to Lucy and asking, "That was just a joke, right?" Lucy shakes her head in response. "Come on, no man can take a dragon by himself."

"He's also traveled through Hell…all seven of them."

"Is he…alright in the head?"

"He's just a tad bit mad."

Nagato scoffs at that and says, almost in a correcting tone, "That means he's insane."

"Sounds to me like you kiddos have a colorful leader to rally behind; make sure you take care of him."

"Yeah," Lucy replies with a laugh, "he sure needs to be looked after."

"So tell me, Nagato. You're one of the youngest in the guild right? In your world, is it normal for kids to fight?"

"The school I'm attending is teaching us how to handle city-level threats. It's not an occupation for everyone, but I'd say I'm pretty damn strong."

Mitsuki jokingly asks, "Are you keeping up with your grades, young man?" Nagato blushes and quickly looks away from her which causes Mitsuki to laugh. "Don't worry about it; your fighting skills are all you'll have to worry about while you're here, and you're pretty good from what I've seen." That got a chuckle out of Nagato, who shortly resumed drinking from his mug. "So you and the other students are defenders of the city? What's it like?"

"I get to test my strength against an endless supply of opponents; they aren't always worthy of my time, given my exceptional prowess, but I get a few surprises every now and again."

Lucy seemed unimpressed with Nagato's boasting, given how she was holding her chin in her hand and sporting a blank stare on her face. "Tell me, what's the Cyrus of your world like?"

"Ugh, that guy." Nagato's expression suddenly soured. "An impudent bastard, that one."

The others reeled back at this, unable to comprehend Nagato's sudden disdain. Alex, as the first to break free from his shock, says, "But you two get along like brothers here; what's wrong with the one from your world?"

"The leader of our guild is in a different league, that much I can tell…although I loathe to admit it. Where I'm from, strength is everything; the Cyrus from my world, compared to me, is just a human not worth my time. He squanders his potential on inferior magic and -" he growls to himself, "and strategy."

"My Cyru- our guild leader uses strategy as well," Lucy was quick to point out. "And define "inferior magic"."

"I'm referring to Western magic; that cast-time crap is ridiculous."

"That's what people in Erdboden use, Cyrus included."

"That's insane! How does he handle solo fights if he has to stand around like an idiot saying fancy words?!"

Alex had an answer to that: "I'm quite sure both of them train so that that very weakness doesn't pose a problem."

"Ugh, I can't believe this; that's what Senpai said too."

Mitsuki was listening to Nagato's side of this despite the biased view he was demonstrating. In a calm tone, she asks, "Nagato, have you ever sparred with him? And if you have, how many times has he beaten you?"

The Ronin was about to take a sip of his drink before promptly setting it back down. His sour expression changed to one of pensive self-reflection. "That's the thing, Mitsuki; he's beaten me on more than one occasion. I'm clearly the stronger of the two of us and yet he manages to get the better of me. Some of them weren't even worthy of being called spars since he ended them so quickly."

Valerie sets a plate of grilled chicken onto the center of the table and looks to Nagato with a smile on her face. She says to him, "It sounds to me like you have a bit of learning to do before you get home. Maybe you'll see your Cyrus' side of things better if you observe your guild leader." Nagato wanted to dismiss Valerie's advice as nonsense, but found himself unable to do so. There was something about her caring tone that made him give it thoughtful consideration.

Lucy was currently looking over the platter at the center of the table, impressed with its quality presentation. The chicken was glazed over, which, in the dim lighting of the pub, caused it to have an alluring gleam. Alex was also impressed with the meal, albeit in a far less composed manner than Lucy. He was drooling, his eyes now resembling sparkling stars. Mitsuki just shrugged at the two and took one of the legs of the meal for herself, prompting Lucy and Alex to voice their objections. Their response was a smug grin from the Troubadour, followed by her casually taking a bite out of the drumstick.

In her fury, Lucy shouts, "You fiend! Have you no shame, Mitsuki?!" Mitsuki responds by smiling at her and taking another, much larger bite out of her food. "Ghastly," Lucy says in a rather stunned response. "Simply, ghastly. Alex, don't you have something to say to her?" She looks over to Alex to see him shedding tears of joy as he takes a bite out of the other drumstick. He didn't seem to hear her question, causing the Dark Hunter to simply stare at him blankly before sighing to herself and cutting her own helping of the meal.

Before long, the four return to the manor, albeit very cautiously. Nagato was especially wary of approaching the front door. "The last time I walked into a science lab with Cyrus and Lily in it, I was sent flying through a wall because of an explosion." Alex scoffed at this and casually walked up to the front door and opened it; Rosa was currently sweeping the floor and appeared to be the only one present. She sets the broom to lean against the table and greets the others with a curtsy.

"Welcome back, everyone; I trust you enjoyed yourselves?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes." After a quick glance around the manor, Lucy concludes that the area is safe. "Was everything alright in our absence, Rosa?"

"Yes, of course; Master Cyrus and Madame Lily were most courteous, even assisting me with some of the chores."

Alex asks, "Where'd those two run off to?"

"Master Cyrus wished to get a head start on mapping the third floor of the labyrinth for your convenience. Madame Lily insisted on accompanying him, despite his protest."

Mitsuki rolls her shoulders and takes a seat at the meeting table. "Those two will be fine; I wouldn't worry about it."

"It is getting dark out though," Lucy said; "I hope they don't do anything foolish."

The two in question were only just now touching down on the third floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Looking around revealed them both to be in an incredibly large room bathed in a pleasantly dark orange hue from the twilight of the setting sun. A cool breeze could be felt blowing from the south, relaxing Lily after the few battles she and her partner had just fought. "It's so pretty," she thought aloud. Quickly focusing herself to the task at hand, she starts walking forward without seeing that Cyrus had stopped walking, causing her to bump against his back. "Is something wrong, Cyrus?"

He was staring off into the distance, a sad expression upon his countenance. A response did not come to Lily, likely because Cyrus was too lost in his thoughts to have heard her. Lily lightly tugs at his arm to try and snap him back to reality, which works a lot sooner than she had expected. "Um, I'm sorry about that; I was just…thinking about the past."

"You looked so sad. Did the sight of this bring back bad memories?"

"Good ones, actually." Lily raised an eyebrow at that, but her concerned expression remained. "In the short time I had with my family, I remember standing out on plains that resemble this room."

"Short time? What…" she felt uncomfortable with what she proceeded to ask, "Why was your time with them short?"

Cyrus takes a moment to consider how to answer that question. A strange expression plagued his face now; it was one that displayed guilt, sadness, and anger in one package. "…They were murdered…and it was my fault that it happened."

"Cyrus, that's absurd; what could you have done to cause that at such a young age?"

He points to his left eye before responding, "It's because an empire needs me dead to make sure their goals aren't impeded. I was supposed to die in a fire along with my family when I was eight, but I was at a friend's house at the time. They only just realized after a decade that I was still alive."

Lily was astonished at this; Cyrus didn't strike her as a bad person, but that wasn't the only thing on her mind. "You were only eight? And you were to be assassinated?! I- I don't understand."

"With good reason; it's rather complicated to explain. Where to begin…" Before Cyrus could gather his thoughts, a hissing sound reverberated throughout the room. A quick survey of the area revealed to the duo that they were not alone in here. Their companion was a large mantis, much like the blood-red one the guild had defeated earlier today. Its color scheme was different, consisting primarily of grey and purple, save for its six wings, which were a sickly green. Looking around the area, Cyrus could see a door in the distance, far behind the mantis. Instead of taking up his spear, he grabs Lily's hand. "We're going to make a break for that door."

"Do you think we can make it?"

"Our ability is irrelevant; we're making it to that door because we must." Coming from anyone else Lily would have found that response to be sarcastic, but Cyrus' tone instilled confidence into her. She silently nods to him to make it known that she was ready to run. Upon seeing the duo break into a dash, the mantis lets out one last screech before charging for them in kind.

_Author's Notes: Three more characters shall be introduced next time; the final party in my Classic trio as far as I've played._


	7. The Edge of a Decision

_Author's Notes: This is precisely why I love doing challenge runs, even if the following scenario only counts as the pseudo-variety._

**Chapter 7: The Edge of a Decision**

Cyrus and Lily opt to circle the perimeter of the room, figuring that the giant mantis chasing them would have a bit less of an advantage in its pursuit. It noticed them from what appeared to be the center of this incredibly large room, effectively taking away a great deal of the duo's escape strategies. Despite this clear advantage, Lily notices something strange about the pursuing mantis. "Cyrus, it doesn't seem to be trying to outsmart us; it's…almost as if it's waiting until we're lined up before charging."

As she explains this, they run past a set of bushes that looked as if they led to another section of the floor. Seeing this, Cyrus thinks to himself, '_That's likely a shortcut, but we can't do anything about that now._' Thinking upon Lily's observation, he adds, "Yeah, I noticed that too. Doesn't it appear as if the mantis stops moving after a short while too?"

"You mean like right now?" Without ceasing their sprint, the two turn their attention to the mantis, which had momentarily stopped flying towards them to…brandish its claws. It stands to reason that the monster was trying to be threatening, but such an effort was wasted if its prey was too busy fleeing for its life to look upon its intimidating weapons. Wisely, the two prey in question took the time to gain more distance on the creature.

Quickly approaching the door, Cyrus lets go of Lily's hand and charges ahead in hopes of getting the door open for her. Charging full speed at this door, which was incredibly tall and had the design of a tree on it, Cyrus thinks to himself, '_Please don't be a "pull"!_' He rams into the door with his shoulder, only to come to the painful realization that it was, in fact, a door that needed to be pulled to be opened; said door was also revealed to be a pair of doors that grant passage when they were separated. Despite the pain he was feeling, he quickly recollects himself and throws the set of double doors open just as Lily arrives. The two run into the next room and the doors behind them somehow shut themselves.

The two wished to catch their breath, but this room proved to be filled with twice the peril of the last; there were two the mantises in this room, one of which was positioned a short distance behind the right flank of its companion. Lily curses to herself and comments, "We can't go left this time, Cyrus; that bastard would have us cornered in an instant and we'd be caught in a pincer attack." Cyrus merely lets out a disdainful grunt in acknowledgment of Lily's observations. Unconsciously taking her hand again, he starts into a dash for the right, the mantises quick to begin their pursuit.

Just as before, the mantises seemed to stop their advance every so often to brandish their claws. Cyrus reaches the doors of this room with time to spare and quickly pulls them open; the room he and Lily dashed into was much smaller, with the doors to the next room standing right before them. Flanking the doors appeared to be two passages. Approaching them, Lily crouches down and tries to determine their usefulness. Doing the same, Cyrus says, "These appear to be one-way passages, Lily."

"What's the point of that if the doors are right next to them?"

"That is an excellent question." He approaches the doors and prepares to pull them open, but hesitates; his eyes took on a stern and focused gaze as he tensed his fingers in between the cracks of the doors.

"What's the matter?"

"I need you to use that Grimoire we made to use Blood Fortune on us."

"We have to fight this time, huh? I got it."

Lily takes her Grimoire Stone and holds it close to her chest; as she focuses energy into it, a visible red aura flows from both her and Cyrus towards the sky. "When I open this door, make a dash for the left side and don't stop until you exit the room."

She questions this, opting to voice her concern; "What about you?"

"I'll be fine; that's a promise. And just so you know," his expression suddenly changed from its battle-ready appearance to one that sported a warm smile. He looked to Lily with caring eyes and continued, "I never break my promises."

Lily sighs to herself and nods to her partner. "You two really are just alike; I'll trust you, so you better not screw up."

"You can be quite direct when you want to be."

"I'm a lot more than a cute face, Cyrus."

A laugh escapes him before he can say, "I don't doubt that."

Reassuming his serious expression, Cyrus pulls the doors open and charges into the room at full speed; Lily is close to follow suit, immediately making her way to the left side of the room as she was instructed. This room, unlike the two large rooms housing mantises, was narrow. This proved to be an issue, due to there being three mantises on the far side of the room. There were also two treasure chests, but it was highly likely that all three mantises would need to be eliminated if those were to be collected.

For once, however, Cyrus and Lily weren't the only two people in the area; a trio of what appeared to be archers clad in varying designs of the same outfit were also present, forced to deal with one of the mantises. Said mantis was golden in color and seemed to be significantly faster than its ordinary counterparts. Further, it seemed to be even stronger than the blood-red mantis, as a simple swing of its claw released a faint shockwave along with emitting a ringing sound as it cut along the wind.

One of the archers, who looked to be the youngest of the trio, ordered her two comrades to run for the doors of the room while she provided a distraction. She took up her bow and nocked an arrow, staring at her target with intense and focused brown eyes. A red scarf covered her mouth, hiding her expression, but she was currently clenching her teeth; '_If this arrow doesn't work, I'm dead,_' she thought to herself. '_That's why I need to make this happen, for the others' sake._' She let her arrow fly towards its destination only for the mantis to quickly deflect it with one of its claws. The archer's eyes widened in horror as the creature drew closer; it had a claw extended forward, ready to run its potential prey through with no hesitation.

Closing her eyes to prepare for the end, the archer flinches as she hears the sound of steel clashing against steel, as well as the sound of something impacting the ground near her with great force. She slowly opens her eyes to see an Alchemist wielding a spear standing in front of her. His spear had intercepted the mantis' claw and forced it to embed into the ground. He looks back to her and lets a smile form on his lips. The archer couldn't help but look surprised.

Turning his attention back to the golden mantis, Cyrus lifts his spear and runs along the arm of the overgrown insect. By the time the creature frees its arm from the clutches of the earth, Cyrus is already directly above it. He spins forward and aims the tip of his spear directly at the mantis' head. '_They say fortune favors the bold, right? Please don't let me screw this up._' To his joy, his spear pierces through the mantis' head; after giving his weapon a slight twist, the mantis' body jerks upwards as it lets out a swift shriek and dies almost instantly. Cyrus wrenches his weapon from the beast's skull and jumps to the ground below. Seeing that the archer he saved was still rather shocked, he straps his spear to his back and looks to the exit to see the only male archer of the trio holding the doors open.

Cyrus nods to himself and picks up the brown-eyed brunette next to him, knocking her out of her dazed state. More confused than before, she shouts, "Wait a minute, what are you doing?!" Cyrus chooses not to answer her, instead running straight for the door. The five adventurers manage to make it to the other side without engaging the other mantises in combat. Though the doors closed behind them, the five could hear the sound of the mantises' bladed arms running along the doors before silence graced them once again. Realizing that he was still holding someone in his arms, Cyrus quickly apologizes and sets the woman down, a faint blush appearing on his face. The archer was also blushing, but her trusty scarf kept that portion of her face hidden. "Thanks for saving me back there."

"Think nothing of it; are the rest of you alright as well?" The others nod to him, to which he replies, "That's good; then that perilous dash was successful. Blood Fortune turned out to be the boost I needed, Lily, thanks."

"How can you tell?"

"Really, I can't, but my luck is usually never that good so I'll concede my success to that."

She laughs at that before shrugging her shoulders and responding, "Sure, boss, we'll roll with that."

The young archer returned to the side of her companions and looked over to Cyrus and Lily. She realizes that those two must have gotten to this point of the labyrinth by themselves and asks, "You two…aren't traversing the labyrinth as a lone duo are you?"

Looking to her, Cyrus says, "No, no, of course not. I wanted to pre-map this floor for my guild and opted to come here before it got too dark."

"He planned to come down here alone but I insisted on tagging along."

"You planned to come down here by yourself?!"

Cyrus scratches the back of his head upon hearing that. "Everyone seems to react the same way when they find that out…I wonder why. Uh, anyway, I'm Cyrus, the leader of the Seekers Guild; the young lass next to me is Lily, our Hexer. It's nice to meet you three."

The young brunette stepped forward and strapped her bow to her back. She placed her hands on the hips of her red shorts and says, "The three of us aren't members of a guild, but we're sanctioned by the Radha to help stock the markets. I lead this trio; my name is Elizabeth…" she closes her eyes and looks away from the duo, another blush forming on her face albeit concealed by her scarf. She then follows, "But you can call me Lissa."

The second woman of this archer trio stepped forward and pulled the scarf covering her face down, revealing a conniving smirk that was directed at Lissa. Her green eyes, rather, the visible left eye that wasn't concealed by her shoulder-length blonde hair, told of a desire to be mischievous. Upon her head was an orange hat with the emblem of a shield sewed into it, along with a white and red feather tucked into the rim. Her attire was much like Lissa's, but with a few alterations. Instead of her sleeveless vest being green, it was the same color as her hat; she also opted to wear a black shirt underneath this vest, choosing not to bare her midriff as Lissa does. Instead of red shorts, she wore a pale brown skirt which matched her scarf.

"Hm? Has our little Lissa stepped into the field of love?" Her voice seemed to carry itself along the wind with a low tone; Cyrus found it to be familiar and likewise relaxing. Lissa quickly turned her attention to this woman, a look of fury gracing her face.

"Shut up, Eva; that's not even close to what this is." She was slightly disconcerted as well as embarrassed, just as this Eva wanted.

"Oh I'm just teasing you; lighten up a bit." Looking to Cyrus and Lily she says, "My name is Evangeline, but feel free to call me Eva." Directing their attention to the male of their trio, Eva follows, "This guy right here is Leon."

Leon's attire was mostly similar to Eva's in appearance, consisting of an orange hat and matching vest, albeit slightly longer than the one the girls wore. Beneath it he wore a long-sleeved grey shirt; instead of a scarf he wore some sort of shroud with his emblem sewed into it. Upon his hat were also a pair of goggles, pinkish red in color. His hair was teal and his eyes were the same shade of brown as Lissa's. In addition to wearing pants instead of shorts, his boots were similar to Cyrus', fitting tightly to his legs. "Nice to meet you two," he says with a smile on his face.

Having noticed that the area was clear of adversaries, Cyrus pulls out the blank map of this floor and turns to his memory as he starts drawing in what he and Lily have traversed thus far. Looking at the three mantis-filled rooms with a frown, he thinks aloud, "We'll need to find a shortcut if we want to avoid that mantis trio in the last room." As he starts mapping the current surroundings, he tilts his head as he sees a path to his right. It was on the border of the map, leading him to assume this path would lead to a dead end, but his curiosity was piqued.

The others take slight glances at each other before deciding to follow Cyrus. The slightly winding path leads them to a spot from which they may mine materials, much to Cyrus' surprise. Leon takes a mining pickaxe from the pack on his back and says, "Hey, good find there, Cyrus! I'll get some stones from this so give me a sec." By the time Leon finished his gathering, the forest had grown dark with the sun's setting. Despite the group being two floors into the labyrinth, the moonlight continued to illuminate the surrounding forest.

Leon's find consisted of a collection of two different types of ores, along with a few of a third type procured from elsewhere in the labyrinth. Lily and Cyrus were quick to notice the white stones known as Pyroxene, as they had found a sample of the ore when they started out on the first floor. The second set consisted of copper-colored ore. Studying it for a moment, Cyrus' eyes widen and he says, "Ooh! This is Bronzite! I haven't worked with this since I was a kid; I bet Shilleka could make some decent weapons if we got these to the shop."

Eva seemed impressed that Cyrus identified the stone so quickly. She asks, "You come from a mining family?"

"Kinda. We're blacksmiths and goldsmiths by trade but we also go out of our way to procure our own base materials."

Lissa then picks up the other unique ore of this collection. It was green in color and, had there been sunlight shining into the labyrinth, would have likely shined vividly. Turning to Cyrus, she asks, "Can you identify this one too?"

He stares at it for a moment before saying, "That's Andradite." After reflecting upon the color, he follows, "Specifically, that's Demantoid, a pretty rare variety of Andradite; it's a valuable gem filled with calcium and iron. Where I'm from, the gem is still new so we're looking for ways to incorporate it into our technology and industries. I believe it recently became a reliable sand paper for finishing bare wood, but I'm not a carpenter so I can't be certain. For my business, it sells for quite a nice price when polished and properly cut into jewelry."

Lily looks to the stone and, after a moment of thinking, says, "I think I read about this stone once. In my world, it's mixed with water to cut steel and other types of materials."

The other four looked quite shocked to hear this. Lissa asks, "You use water to cut steel?!"

"How does that work?" Eva asked.

"I can't give specifics since I don't work in that kind of field, but I believe they use water jets to do it; the water is highly pressurized and mixed with good abrasives like Andradite to cut through sturdy materials."

"How intriguing," Cyrus says with a hand to his chin, "it sounds like your world has greater technological advancements than my own."

"But your world has the better magic from the sounds of it."

Leon looked to Cyrus and Lily dubiously and asked, "Why do you two keep saying 'world' in that context? It sounds like you're more than just foreigners."

"Oh, right," Cyrus says with slight surprise, "you're not aware of our situation. Come, we'll explain as we explore."

True to his word, Cyrus and Lily work together to explain the teleporting mishap that led to them arriving in Etria. Lissa and her group understandably had a difficult time believing such claims, but this duo didn't strike them as the suspicious sort. "So exploring the labyrinth may help you get back home?"

"Yes, Eva, but it's definitely a tall order," Cyrus sadly admits.

"First we need to reach the second stratum; without a Geomagnetic Field to work with, we're stuck."

"Sounds like you were thrown into quite a bind, huh?"

"That's putting it lightly, Leon," Lissa remarked, "I sure hope you can find some way back home. Ending up on the other side of the planet is one thing, but being placed in an entirely different world is a whole lot scarier than that."

A moment of silence passes as the five travel through the strangely empty third floor of the labyrinth. Excluding the giant mantises from before, the group had yet to be beset by any more creatures. This left Lily on edge; the uncharacteristic tranquility was not what she had come to expect from this place. Suddenly, Lissa calls for the group to stop moving; it took a moment for Cyrus to see Lissa's reasoning, but he quickly realized that an enemy was approaching them.

From the rustling bushes emerged a towering beast, one that was a primate in stature whose black and grey fur was oddly reminiscent of the stripes of a zebra. It had piercing red eyes and constantly bared its golden teeth, which seemed to shine in the moonlight. Its muscular figure alone was enough to cause the group to slowly back away, but those red eyes, coupled with the dim lighting of the labyrinth's nightly shroud, instilled a sense of nervousness among the group. Cyrus reached for his spear when Lily held her arm out to him. "I'll take care of this one," she said with a confident voice and expression to match.

She takes a slight step forward, provoking the creature to pound its chest in an intimidating manner. Lily, in response, decides to strike a pose; she places her left hand on her left hip and turns so that only her shoulder is facing the beast. She closes her eyes and angles her head so that she looks slightly to the ground. The others tilt their heads inquisitively as they watch the young Hexer adjust her red glasses so that the moonlight completely covers the right lens with a white glare while only the right half of the left lens is concealed.

The striped primate takes a step forward and Lily opens her left eye, shooting an intense glare in the creature's direction. For a moment, nothing happens, but then the beast makes eye contact. It takes another step forward before the group hears the sound of a muffled explosion. A small amount of blood leaks from the beast's mouth before it weakly clutches at its chest and falls to the ground, dead. Lily sighs to herself, reassumes her usual posture, and returns to her group. She looked to Cyrus with a smile on her face and says, "See? I told you I had that one. Bet you were surprised, right?"

"That was certainly a creative way to use Lethal Glare," Cyrus admits with a smile of his own. "You looked pretty good too; you should pose like that more often."

"Wishful thinking, Cyrus. Maybe I'll think about it…maybe not."

"Bah, you're no fun."

The group reaches a fork in the road and opts to take the left path. As he draws the map for his guild, Cyrus looks up and notices a patch of yellow flowers very similar to those found on the previous two floors. These flowers, in his experience, have indicated shortcuts. He ponders the notion for a moment and then eases his way into the passage. He slips through the trees with ease and finds himself back in the room with the two mantises. They had yet to notice him, so he silently slipped through the trees once more, rejoining his allies.

Lily nudges his arm and playfully says, "Another shortcut found, huh?"

A smile forms on Cyrus' lips as he continues to draw the map. "Indeed, lass."

The rest of the path leads to a dead end of no particular interest, leaving the five to return to the crossroads to take the path untraveled. They don't travel very far down this path before they are stopped by two traveling explorers. The younger of the two, dressed in the same Hexer robes as Lily, had flame-red hair and yellow eyes that shimmered in the darkness of the labyrinth. In her grip was some sort of stuffed animal that appeared to be a rabbit. Cyrus was slightly off-put by the doll, given the look of its mouth, but Lily found it to be cute.

She looked to her companion, a taller and presumably older woman with blue hair and cold blue eyes. This woman was dressed in blue and white samurai garments, adorning her left shoulder with a brown shield and covering her arms with bracers. In her left hand was a sheathe concealing a katana with a golden hilt. A small scar could be seen on her forehead, suggesting that she was no stranger to combat. She nods to the younger girl addressing her and steps forward.

The blue-haired woman looks about the group, seemingly studying the five adventurers. Her stoic gaze eventually falls upon Cyrus, who makes eye contact with her. The Alchemist could feel a sense of apprehension welling up within him; there was a level of strength to this woman that he hadn't encountered in some time. He thought to himself, '_Why is someone this strong on the early floors of the labyrinth?_'

The woman, in kind, could see a deal of strength in Cyrus and discerned that he's the leader of this group. At the very least, she was half-correct. "Well met, travelers." Her voice was likewise stern and direct. "I must say…your party structure is certainly a unique one." That got an awkward chuckle out of the group, prompting Cyrus and Lissa to explain the circumstances of their groups coming together. Understanding the situation, the blue-haired woman looks to Cyrus and Lily and says, "Though you seemed to have things under control, know that it is dangerous to explore the labyrinth with only two people. There are certain…risks you run with that choice."

The two opt not to say anything in response to that; this woman clearly understood what risks she was referring to, assuming that she and her Hexer companion were, in fact, a lone duo themselves. Said Hexer stepped forward to stand at her companion's side. "My name's Tlachtga, and this is Ren." Her voice was also stoic, albeit in a manner different from Ren's. While Ren spoke with a sense of seriousness, the young Hexer named Tlachtga seemed to have a voice that was completely devoid of emotion. Her facial expressions, however, filled the role of portraying her emotions. Presently, Tlachtga looked worried about something. She looks to the Ren again, who nods silently to her.

Turning her attention back to the five adventurers, Ren states, "My companion and I are here on the orders of the Radha to prevent explorers such as yourselves from venturing beyond this point."

Cyrus raised an eyebrow at this. "Really? Lily and I visited the Radha just a few short hours before we dove in here; Subaltern Quinn didn't make mention of anything unusual."

Ren, in turn, raised an eyebrow of her own. "Was he distracted with another matter?"

Lily answers, "We had a report to turn in regarding a mission from the Radha."

Thinking it over for a moment, Tlachtga soon tugs at Ren's sleeve and says, "I think they were the ones who defeated the red mantis on the first floor."

"Ah, I see, that was a pressing matter indeed. You see, there is another threat beyond this floor, one that would be far too great for novice explorers to handle."

"You're here to make sure those people don't get themselves killed; admirable."

"We will only allow you to pass if you receive permission from the Radha. Until then, I'm afraid your exploration will be limited."

"Yes, I understand." Cyrus pats a hand on Lily's shoulder to get her attention. "We've been out late enough as it is; we should get back to our guild and address this matter tomorrow."

"We appreciate the warning, so we'll get out of your hair now; you two take care."

"Yes, safe travels to all of you."

Despite being sanctioned by the Radha, Lissa opts for her team to depart alongside Cyrus and Lily. "You two don't plan to walk all the way out of here do you?"

"Oh, no, not this time," Cyrus replies with a smile. "I have a formula that Lily and I wish to test. If it works properly, we'll be warped out of the labyrinth to the city gates of Etria."

Leon thought about that concept for a moment. "Oh, you mean the Return Formula? I've heard a few Alchemists talking about that one at the bar. It especially helps to have it if your group carelessly forgot to bring an Ariadne Thread."

Eva and Lissa looked to each other with confused faces, left in the dark as to what Leon was talking about. Instead of asking questions, they simply shrugged and watched as Cyrus took a knee and started messing with his gauntlet. He opened a door at the base of where his left hand would be, revealing the inner workings of his somewhat modified construct. There were four medium-sized vials aligned with his four fingers, three of which were filled with red, blue, and yellow liquids, respectively. The fourth, which aligned with his pinky, was strangely empty.

He removed this empty vial and held it in his right hand. Using his left, he channeled the natural energy around him to fill the vial with a small portion of the liquid forms of fire, ice, and electricity. This results in the contents of the vial appearing to be brown before shifting to a warm shade of grey. He carefully secures the vial in its place within the gauntlet and closes it off again. "Everyone, gather around; I have yet to experiment with the range of this spell; I wouldn't want to leave anyone behind."

Leon was rather excited about this if the smile on his face was anything to go by. "I've never been teleported before; this'll be pretty cool."

Lissa and Eva, however, were actually quite nervous about this. They, too, had never warped before outside of using an Ariadne Thread. Considering this was Cyrus' first time making use of this formula, especially when coupled with his strange origin story, they were both understandably nervous about where this spell would take them; this was, of course, assuming the spell actually succeeded. "Alright, here we go." Cyrus then channels energy into his gauntlet, causing the runes he engraved to glow with a grey hue. Coincidentally, the runes he opted to design his gauntlet with were in the same design at the runic pattern in his left eye.

Cyrus' fist collides with the ground, causing a magic circle to appear beneath the group. As he feared, the circle wasn't very large, leaving him pleased with his foresight to bring his companions a lot closer. Three seconds after the circle forms, it shimmers brightly and causes the group of five to disappear from the labyrinth's third floor. When they reappear, they are standing before the gates to Etria, just as Cyrus and Lily predicted. The guards expressed dull surprise at this, having seen plenty of other Alchemists pull off the same feat.

Eva breathes a sigh of relief and nudges Lissa's arm. She quietly says, "Isn't that a relief? Your boyfriend didn't send us to another dimension."

"Oh would you give it a rest? You have no reason to think that way…and yes, yes it is a relief."

Leon couldn't hear what his two friends were talking about, but seeing Lissa frown at Eva provoked him to add, "Ladies, ladies! There's no need to fight over little ol' Leon!" The reward for his quip was a pair of blank stares from both Lissa and Eva. "Has my charm left you both at a loss for words once again?"

Lily stepped to Cyrus' side and giggled to herself. "I think you two would get along quite well, Cyrus."

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing." He clears his throat to get the attention of the archer trio. "I know this is rather sudden, but do you three have a place to spend the night? If not you could stay at our manor tonight; we have plenty of room."

"Cyrus here is also a good cook so we can force him to make breakfast tomorrow."

"Lily, when you put it that way it just sounds awful."

"Oh you love your role; you know you do."

While Eva and Leon were laughing at Lily and Cyrus, Lissa stared at them with widened eyes. "Could you…go back a bit? You have a manor?"

"We were just as surprised as you are," Cyrus admits with a chuckle.

"Our maid is really sweet too, and smart. We don't want to impose or anything, but we'd be happy to have you over."

Eva steps in between her comrades and wraps an arm around their shoulders, pulling them in close to her. "Who are we to turn down such a wonderful offer?" Seeing that they have no room to decline, Leon and Lissa smile and concede. With that properly decided, the five are granted passage into town and proceed towards the Archive.

_Author's Notes: Having gone back to re-read these to avoid plot holes and such, I've been wondering: Do any of you readers think the pacing of this story needs to change? Perhaps it is too slow or the focus, you feel, is on the wrong subjects? Let me know what you think._


	8. Blazing Sword

**Chapter 8: Blazing Sword**

The following morning presented the Seekers Guild with a few new additions to its situation; it gained three new members over night, which served as quite a surprise to the four who didn't venture into the labyrinth last night. During the meeting with the officials of the Radha, Subaltern Quinn advised Lissa's exploration team to join the Seekers Guild with the hopes that having stronger, more combat oriented allies would improve their explorations. Lissa and her team pondered the prospect, accepting that surviving the labyrinth and improving the Etrian economy would be a simpler task with Cyrus' guild providing support.

This turned out to be beneficial to the Seekers as well, because now they had a means of fulfilling the requests of the Golden Deer Pub that required the farming of materials. Though that dilemma was solved, the guild now had a larger issue to contend with. Cyrus and Lily informed the others of what the Ronin named Ren had to say about the lower floors of the first stratum. It was revealed by the Radha that the threat below is being caused by a pack of wolves, one that was led by a powerful pack leader named Fenrir.

Currently, the group's leader was sitting across from Nagato at the meeting table. Cyrus had dealt with wolves plenty of times back home in Erdboden, but Nagato's heritage as a half-wolf, he figured, would prove to be indispensible in dealing with this issue. He wanted the dispute solved quickly, but hoped this could also be solved peacefully. Nagato, however, shot this hope down disturbingly quickly. He finally opened his eyes to address his guild's leader directly. As his stern gaze met Cyrus', he took a moment to gather his thoughts one last time.

"We wolves are a proud race as I'm sure you understand," he began. "We secure our territory and defend it with every ounce of strength we have; it doesn't matter if said territory is too large for us, as we wish to secure a bountiful supply of prey."

Cyrus thought on that for a moment before suggesting, "And if we were to establish some sort of even trade? Could we perhaps share the Emerald Grove?"

Nagato shook his head to this, which caused Cyrus' gaze to narrow. "You see, Cyrus, a lot of hatred has been sewn between our kind; we've been hunted and demonized, reduced to being a mere subject of fear for humans." As he explained this, his voice was as stoic as it ever was; the group expected him to sound hurt or at least somewhat resentful, but Nagato seemed indifferent, almost to a disturbing degree. "This is the common ground our two races have reached over the course of history, a common ground that will not be easily turned."

A sigh escaped Cyrus as Nagato finished his piece. The others could see the distress in the Alchemist's eyes as he held his chin in his hand and stared at the table. He eventually looked up to Nagato again, whose purple eyes never once ceased their hardened stare. After a moment of silence, he asks, "Are the territorial battles to the death?"

"There is usually no other way to get the point across."

Despite his heart telling him to do otherwise, Cyrus rose from his seat and voiced his acceptance of Nagato's views. He sighs to himself and opens his eyes; rather than showing a look of defeat, they displayed a sense of resolution; he was ready to do what he accepted as a necessity. He walks over to the closet and pulls out three medium-sized bags before returning to the meeting table.

Placing these bags onto the table, he says, "Nagato, gather your equipment; you're heading into the labyrinth with me and our gathering team."

The young Ronin picks up his katana that was resting next to his chair and straps it to his waist. Resting a hand on the hilt of his weapon, he says, "Ready to go. What's the plan?"

Strapping his spear to his back, Cyrus replies, "In addition to knocking out every quest in our backlog, I'm going to teach you how to handle fire magic in this world. Lissa, you and the others are set to go, right?"

"Yep, we're all set. We should check out the pub though; there might be new quests to handle." Cyrus nods to this and before long, the five set out for the pub. Upon arriving, they immediately approach the counter to ask Valerie about the available requests. Looking at two in particular, Lissa could see a pair that was easy to fulfill. "It looks like someone is trying to make easy coin," she says as she takes the two pieces of paper from the board.

Valerie glances at the paper before a smile appears on her face. "Ah, those two requests; there's a merchant sitting in the bar right now who's trying to find some gathering points. Why don't you try talking to him for the details?" Cyrus took another pair of requests from the board and placed them on the counter for his team to review. Valerie takes another glance and says, "Those are from Shilleka; the first one is pretty easy; she just needs you to gather an Amber Lump from the second floor so she can make more Nectar. The second requires you to fight quite a few monsters so I hope you'll be careful."

Looking at the list of needed monster materials, Eva tilts her head and asks, "Didn't we get a monkey bone on the way out last night?"

Leon thinks on it for a moment before replying, "I think Lissa killed a Zebratherium just before we met Cyrus and Lily." Cyrus and Nagato repeated the word in a questioning tone, prompting Leon to follow up with saying, "Oh, that's the name of the creature Lily killed by glaring at it; you can get monkey bones from it. As for the ordinary monster bones, I'm sure your group has taken out enough Clawed Moles to set Shilleka over for awhile."

Nagato stared at Leon for a moment before asking, clearly in disbelief, "Lily killed a monster by just looking at it?"

"Yeah," Cyrus admits with a sense of shock of his own. "The beast was even taller than you, with twice the muscle; she gave it one swift glare and made its heart explode, judging from that muffled explosion we heard."

"She…she did what?" Nagato couldn't believe what he was hearing, a look of incredulity etching onto his face.

Leaving the others to their own devices for a moment, Cyrus took the time to approach the merchant responsible for posting these two requests regarding gathering points. The merchant was a portly one, and seemed to be a bit restless. He was constantly tapping his finger to the counter in an uneven rhythm and occasionally sighing to himself. "Excuse me," Cyrus called out, pulling the man from his thoughts. "Are you the merchant who posted these two requests? My guild has decided to help you out with your search?"

"Seriously? What perfect timing! I was getting restless just sitting here. Alright, let's get down to business; what I'm looking for are two points, one on the first floor, the other on the second. I wish to make a quick buck so I need to know a good spot for Chopping and Taking."

Cyrus pulls out two maps from the pack on his back, much to the surprise of the portly merchant. He lays both of them out on the table before his client and points out four different gathering points. Directing his attention the Chop points on the first floor, he says, "These two are quite close to each other, but the point on the west end yields materials that are more worthwhile. Now," he says as he directs the merchant's attention to the Take points on the second floor, "this Take point on the west is easier to get to, but you have to move around a Ragelope every time you wish to gather here. The one to the east, while more out of the way, is safer and yields some very profitable materials, materials that my guild was going to procure shortly."

After that rather lengthy explanation, the merchant studies the map, as if trying to memorize it. Before long he replies, "Yes, yes, I see. I'll have my scouts check out these spots and secure swift supply routes, so be sure to check the bar later."

"Will do." Cyrus then rolls up his maps and bows to the client before rejoining his team. He says to Valerie, "Well, it looks like we have two of those requests taken care of; do you have any more we might be able to handle, Madame?"

She looks to the board and scans around it. He eyes soon fall onto two more jobs; pulling them from the board, she hands them off to Cyrus and says, "That first one is from me; I'd like for you to gather three Tiny Petals for me."

"That sounds oddly simple," Nagato says with his arms crossed. "You're the bar owner; surely you have requests more demanding than this? We can handle it."

Valerie has a short laugh at that. "I wouldn't ask you kiddos to go slaughter a god or anything like that; what do you take me for?"

"Uh," Lissa starts as she reads the second request with a raised eyebrow, "why is this last one so vague?"

"That's from the Guildmaster; he…wouldn't tell me the details of this quest so I'm afraid you'll have to meet with him directly. I feel bad about this too; it felt wrong putting up a request when I don't know what kind of danger it's going to put my patrons in. If anything, I should be relieved that you're the ones taking it, but I hope you'll be careful too."

"No worries, Madame Valerie," Cyrus says reassuringly, "we'll be fine; you'll see us again before you know it." With his piece said and his team's objectives clear, Cyrus bids farewell to Valerie and sets out for the Explorers Guild with his team in tow. Upon seeing the group enter his office, the Guildmaster lets a smirk appear on his face as he stands up to greet the rookies.

"Ah, it's you; what brings you lot back here so soon?"

Cyrus steps forward and says, "We took on your job, Boss."

He raised an eyebrow to that and replies, "Is that right? Well then, I should cut the suspense. I need you to go into the labyrinth and bring me three Crabapples." The group blankly stared at him for a moment, awaiting further instructions; that couldn't possibly be his only request. Surprisingly, the Guildmaster confirms the suspicion, "That's all I want…so stop giving those blank stares."

"You're kidding, right?"

"I don't have time to joke, Nagato."

"Alright then, Guildmaster, why do you want these Crabapples?"

He remained silent, choosing to answer Nagato with a blank stare of his own. An awkward tension was forming in the room as the silence stretched out, a silence that was beginning to make Lissa and Leon uncomfortable. Eva and Cyrus sported frowns on their faces as they glanced at each other, wondering in unison when someone would break this pause in conversation. Cursing internally, Cyrus decides to be the one to do so.

"I understand if you're too busy to gather these for yourself, Boss, but could you tell us who these are for?"

The Guildmaster closes his eyes for a moment before actually giving a reply. He quickly says, "They're for my kids."

"Oh, really? Is that all? We'll have them for you in no time, so sit tight."

Cyrus' rather dismissive response caught the Guildmaster off guard; he was expecting the young man to be deflated as Nagato was. Before the others can question the Guildmaster about his family and, more importantly, if he was a doting father, Cyrus drags the rest of his team off to the labyrinth to get started on their work; a rather long day was ahead of them, one he figured they'd need to make the most of. To his surprise, it only took a few hours to gather all of the materials requested at the bar; as he and the rest of his team stretched after finishing their work, he looked to the sky, rather, the ceiling of the second floor.

The warmth of the beaming sunlight felt warm against his skin; Cyrus wasn't used to taking breaks, let alone properly pacing himself, so this change in perspective felt refreshing to him. Taking a seat on a nearby collapsed log he muses to himself, '_Gwenivere was right about me; I really don't know how to relax. Jumping from one issue to the next; that's definitely me._' He sighs and thinks aloud, "I hope she and the others are alright."

He failed to realize Lissa was sitting next to him, and understandably jumped when she asked, "Who are you talking about?" In his momentary shock, Cyrus managed to fall off the log and flat onto his back. Lissa gave him a blank stare before laughing to herself and extending a hand to help her guild leader back up.

Having regained his composure, Cyrus clears his throat and says, "I was just thinking about someone from my world…a woman I'm in service to as a knight."

"You're a knight? I suppose that's not all that surprising; you're really serious where it counts…off the clock though…you're a bit weird." She realized that her words might have come out the wrong way, but her fears of such diminished as Cyrus shot a sheepish smile in her direction. "But that's OK. I like that you're weird; it makes you easy to talk to. So you're worried about her, huh? Is she, how do I put this – is she frail?"

"Oh not in the slightest. Lady Gwenivere is one of the strongest people I know. I suppose I'm worrying for nothing, but I can't help but do so. Sure, she can handle herself, but I worry since I'm not there to protect her."

Lissa giggled to herself and gave Cyrus a quick poke on the nose. "That's adorable; you have a crush on your boss."

"I can't deny that," he replies, not even trying to hide the blush on his face. The two sit in silence for a short time after that exchange; it was a comfortable silence, much unlike the situations the two had gone through previously. For them, it felt relaxing to be sitting next to one another, simply taking in the deceptive beauty of Yggdrasil together. This silence ended as soon as it began when Nagato, Eva, and Leon arrived into the clearing. The former had his katana drawn and held idly in the grip of his right hand. Seeing this, Cyrus stood from the log and donned a serious expression to replace his look of contentment.

"Alright, Cyrus; what is it that I can learn from you?" Lissa, Eva, and Leon decided to sit on another, more distant, log together to watch these two train from afar. Cyrus stepped forward and stabbed his spear into the dirt. Stepping away from it, he holds out his right hand, palm opened towards the ceiling and focused energy into it. In but a few seconds, a simple ball of flame ignites from his palm, dancing freely around his fingers.

Nagato looks at the display in a studious manner; he could tell Cyrus was trying to make a point but he couldn't tell what that point was, at least not yet. Cyrus then grabbed his spear and wrenched it from the ground; the flame from his hand then traveled from his palm to the blade of the spear, where it danced in a swirling manner. The runes engraved into Cyrus' spear, as well as his left eye, were now glowing red. Oddly, the flames dispersed relatively quickly, returning the spear to its normal state.

"That was a technique I learned from a Grimoire Stone known as Spear Assist. From what I was able to gather, it momentarily allows the user to channel the leftover energy of the most recently used elemental attack into the blade of the spear, allowing for an elemental attack that is far more powerful than a basic strike." Strapping the spear to his back once more, he steps forward and a smirk appears on his face. "Fire is your best element from what I understand; with any luck, you'll have this technique mastered in no time."

The next ten minutes of this training session focused on the many stances a Ronin could take. Nagato had neglected to inform his team of this, but he was studying the styles of his fellow Ronin from a distance. "I've seen how Etrian explorers practice their swordplay; the style I'm used to from my world doesn't exactly work here so I have no choice but to adapt to the local customs."

"There are three stances that I've observed so far; which have you chosen to work on?"

"The Upper Stance; an overhead swing can provide a powerful offense while also giving me the defense I…lack….why are you smiling at me like that? It's annoying."

Cyrus lets out a slight chuckle but quickly says, "I'm sorry, truly; you just remind me more of Lord Nagato with each sentence you say." Nagato stares at him for a moment before scoffing. "An overhead stance is actually perfect for this," he says with a confident nod. "You'll be able to generate a powerful wave of fire that'll spread out and hit the flank of your target. To begin, I want you to assume your stance and take some practice swings; after that we'll work on getting you to channel fire magic. I have a few things to procure, so you get started and I'll be back soon."

Nagato merely nods and swings his blade down after defensively holding it above his head. A wave of air was sent flying right past Cyrus, one that was strong enough to cause his hair and the grass beneath him to sway wildly as it rushed by. As the rush of air struck his face, Cyrus made a mental note on how it felt; it was rather hot, akin to an unforgiving rush of heat one feels upon opening a pre-heated oven. The Alchemist then departed to gather sizable pieces of wood. Upon returning he found that Nagato had yet to move from his spot and was still practicing his swings.

The look of focus on the Ronin's face as he stared forward brought a soft smile to Cyrus' face. For some reason, he was happy that Nagato had something that he could dedicate himself to. '_I know he's not the same person, but I'm happy that this Nagato hasn't lost his way either._' He glances over to the other three members of his current team to see Eva resting her head on Leon's shoulder, who, in turn, was resting his head upon Eva's. The two appeared to be asleep. '_Understandable,_' Cyrus thought to himself, '_they did the majority of the gathering; they deserve the rest._'

Lissa, however, was quite awake, almost restless as she hummed a tune to herself. She waved to Cyrus as he arrived at the clearing once again and shot a warm smile in his direction. Nagato performs one last swing before stopping to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He catches a canteen that was surprisingly cold to the touch. Glancing in the direction from whence it came, he sees Cyrus smirking at him. Nagato merely lets out a grunt as he locks eyes with his guild's leader. '_Although I'm grateful for the drink, I'll be damned if I let this fool know as much._'

Cyrus takes the pieces of wood he gathered and places them in a neat pile off to the side near Lissa. He takes one into his hand and spins it on his finger before turning to Nagato and asking, "You ready to play with fire?" He suddenly felt that he'd regret asking that question, as Nagato's response was a wordless one. Instead, a sinister smirk appeared on the young man's face. Despite his apprehension, Cyrus handed the cut of wood in his grip over to Nagato and says, "I want you to try channeling magic to ignite this piece of wood." Just as quickly as it had appeared, Nagato's smirk was suddenly replaced with a frown as he stared at the wood in his hand. Raising an eyebrow to this, Cyrus asks, "Is there something wrong?"

"I…don't get the basics of magic channeling…"

Cyrus tilted his head at that and donned a shocked expression on his face. '_Did I hear him correctly?_' Nagato was staring at him with an incredibly serious expression on his face; he looked rather out of place standing in the center of the clearing with a block of wood held idly in his grip. '_I think he was being serious._' "OK," Cyrus said with an awkward chuckle, "so what about your spells back home?"

"Oh, those? I can create towering infernos and set my fists on fire; even my katana if need be." He winced as he watched Cyrus slam his palm to his face.

"And you can't conjure a simple ball of flame?" Nagato wanted to laugh; Cyrus' face was now decorated with a bright red handprint that looked as if it was pulsing every few seconds. Though the Ronin kept his stoic expression, Lissa couldn't help but stifle a snicker. To answer Cyrus' question, Nagato simply shakes his head, to which Cyrus replies, "We'll have to do this the hard way; the way Lord Nagato had to learn as well."

An eyebrow raised, Nagato slightly opened his mouth as if to speak, only to find himself quickly closing it again. Carefully choosing his words, he asks, "And just how did this Nagato of your world learn?"

"Easy," the Alchemist responds as he creates a ball of black flame in his right hand; "we just need to temper your soul and make it more in-tune with the elements. For the sake of being an Etrian Ronin, this will also make it easier for you to use ice and lightning."

Lissa and Nagato jumped back at Cyrus' strikingly forward suggestion. "You're not seriously suggesting we set my damn soul on fire, are you?"

"Don't worry, I won't do anything that'll kill you. I go through this as regular training and have done so for a decade now; I'll even take it easy on you…unlike my master would."

"How old are you again?"

"I'm eighteen, Nagato."

"I was afraid you'd say that…and I'm not afraid of anything."

Cyrus takes a slight step forward and asks, "Are you ready?"

Nagato understandably takes a step back. "You got any other methods?"

Cyrus looks to the flame in his hand and says, "This is the safest one."

"What are the other options then?!" he shouted, his left eye visibly twitching. Seeing that Cyrus was looking at him with sad eyes, he figured the answer to this question was something he didn't want to hear. He sighs to himself in defeat and asks, "When I'm set on fire, what do I do?"

"You'll be bathed in the black flames until you can set the blade of your katana on fire. Of course, we'll have to stop early if I find that you're taking any form of damage. Take up your weapon and let me know when you've steeled yourself."

Holding his katana in his Upper Stance once more, Nagato looks in Cyrus' direction and simply nods. The Alchemist takes the flame in his hand and throws it at Nagato, which results in the Ronin's body being engulfed in a black and ominous flame. Nagato couldn't feel anything after the fireball struck his chest; '_not a trace of heat to be found,_' he noted to himself. After a moment, though, he suddenly felt something inside him getting warmer. It was a faint feeling at first, but it gradually grew into something he couldn't ignore. The feeling wasn't a painful one, much to his surprise; this burning sensation felt empowering.

Lissa watched nervously as Nagato simply held his stance, somehow not flinching as these black flames danced on his body. The Ronin slowly opened his eyes, feeling a tingling sensation running into his fingers. He tightens the grip on the hilt of his katana and motions into a downward swing; the result is one that widens the eyes of both Nagato and Lissa. A wide trail of flames erupts from Nagato's blade as it hits the ground and splits into two shockwaves that travel horizontally in either direction. A smile etches onto Cyrus' face as he dispels the black flames enveloping Nagato.

Sheathing his weapon, Nagato lets an arrogant smirk grace his lips as he says, "Hmph, and you said the flames could possibly kill me; what a load of bull."

"I told you that I'd go easy on you; I've had to kill monsters with those flames before, many of which were from the Seven Hells."

"Yeah about that; why do you have seven Hells in your world? I'm pretty sure one has all the suffering a soul could ever ask for."

"They're more like locales than they are afterlife deposits."

"Then where do you go for the afterlife?"

"Hell if I know; I've never died before."

"No shit? You like the type who would have lost a lot of them."

Cyrus rubs the back of his head as he says, "Well, all of my player characters in my favorite tabletop RPG have died…right at the end of every campaign too…"

Lissa, seeing that the Eva and Leon were beginning to wake up from their nap, smiles and says, "We've gotten everything we came for, so let's get back to Etria." Cyrus and Nagato nod in response to this suggestion and warp back to town through the use of Cyrus' Return Formula. Their first stop is at the Explorers Guild where they hand over the Crabapples to the Guildmaster. Though grateful for the trouble the Seekers went to, he tells them not to reveal this ordeal to anyone. The next stop was Shilleka's Shop, where the monster materials were turned in; Shilleka, grateful for the swift help, tells the team that their reward was already at the pub waiting for them.

Luckily, this was their very next stop. Upon arriving, Valerie informs them that the portly merchant reported securing a successful route to the gathering points Cyrus pointed out to him. "There was another thing; what is it that the Guildmaster wanted?"

Cyrus immediately responds, "He made us swore not to reveal that information, Madame; I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, it wasn't dangerous in any sense of the word."

"That old fart made us go get Crabapples for his kids," Nagato says with his arms crossed. This outburst got a laugh out of Eva and Valerie, but Cyrus slammed his palm to his face once more before shooting a look of disappointment at Nagato.

"So that's what it was about? It's good that he's a caring father at the very least. I sure hope you kiddos are ready to do some lifting, 'cause you have a lot of rewards to carry." The bar mistress then proceeded to place a variety of items onto the counter, starting with three bottles of Nectar. "These are from Shilleka; she knew you wouldn't let her down and left these with me in a hurry." Next, she placed three red talismans on the counter, along with a jar filled with an icy-blue liquid.

Nagato recognizes the red talismans, quickly identifying them as Fire Talismans; they were identical to one of the items he and the others found in a treasure chest on the first floor of the labyrinth. Cyrus picks up the jar and studies it. "I don't think I've seen this before; it seems to be in a container that's too large to hold a potion…what is it?"

"It's called Chill Mist," Leon explains, "You use it to lessen the damage everyone on the field takes from ice attacks."

"That includes the enemy," Eva adds, "so you have to be careful if ice is what you need to defeat a group of monsters."

"Don't get too excited, because we're not done yet." Valerie disappears into a backroom and eventually returns holding a strange suit of armor comprised of bone, along with some sort of auburn hair accessory as well as a green boot designed for exploration. Leon eyes the boot for a moment before deciding that he'd be the one to carry it. Handing off the armor to Nagato, she says, "This is a suit of Bone Armor; it's rather…unique, but it'll do a better job at protecting you than your street clothes will."

Nagato suddenly blushed as he realized that comment was directed at him. In some sort of defense, he quickly tries to explain himself; "I'll, uh, I'll have you know that this was the pinnacle of fashion for someone as cool as myself. This ensemble grants me unparalleled mobility on the battlefield and I dare say I look damn good in it!"

"You certainly have the confidence if nothing else," Cyrus quips with a smirk on his face. Looking to the hair accessory, he picks it up and studies it. Eventually, he comments, "This is a Skarn Barrette, isn't it?" Seeing Valerie nod to him, he follows, "Ah, I figured as much; these used to be a pretty popular craft when I was young. I remember making two of these for my lady friends. They wanted a matching pair since they're twins…getting the symmetry down was a right nightmare." He laughs at that and dons a melancholic expression. "But it was worth it; I got to bring a smile to their faces."

He hands the hairpin over to Lissa, who looks at him with a confused expression. "What's this for?"

"Consider it a gift from me; I noticed how you kept us travelling in such a way that we were rarely detected by monsters. You kept the group safe from undue harm, so consider this my thanks."

"I look out for my own…that's all…but thanks." She puts the Skarn Barrette into her hair, clipping it onto the bang framing the right side of her face. "How do I look?"

Nagato, crossing his arms again, answers, "Cute enough to give me a sugar rush."

"A rather crude response," Cyrus comments, "but he's right; you look quite cute, Lissa."

Her face turned red at the compliment, causing her to turn towards the door and say, "Th- thanks, you two…you're too kind; uh, anyway! We should get back to the Archive so we can plan our next move, right?"

"Not a bad idea," Cyrus says with a nod. "We also need to decide how the rest of the third floor is going to be mapped."

Placing a hand to her hip, Eva says, "Yeah, those decisions aren't going to make themselves so let's get going."

Valerie calls out to them, "Oh, wait a sec! I almost forgot about your last reward." She reaches under the counter and pulls out a spear, immediately catching Cyrus' attention. Taking the spear into his hands, he began studying its features, wishing to discern its level of craftsmanship as well as its battle applications. It was a rather normal craft, save for its blade, which was saw-like in appearance. "It's called the Dismemberer. It's not really suited for combat, but if you need to take out a monster's legs, no weapon does it better."

Strapping this new weapon to his back, Cyrus says, "You have my thanks, Madame Valerie; I'll be sure to put this weapon to use. We'll see you later to handle some more requests so look forward to seeing us again."

"You got it; stay safe out there, kiddos!"


	9. Pushing Forward

_Author's Notes: I must say that I had a lot of fun writing this particular chapter, so I hope you all enjoy it._

**Chapter 9: Pushing Forward**

Having decided on how to proceed through the third floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, Alex took the helm of the exploration team and dove down with Lucy, Nagato, Lily, and Mitsuki forming his group. The group evades the mantis of the first room with relative ease and quickly slips into the shortcut Cyrus discovered to evade the duo in the following room. It was still early in the afternoon so the group wasn't in much of a rush to explore the area before nightfall. Proceeding down the path that ended abruptly on the map Cyrus drew, the team eventually reaches the clearing where Cyrus and Lily met Ren and Tlachtga, both of whom were still present.

The blue-haired Ronin steps forward to address these unfamiliar faces, thinking they, too, were a group of explorers who were uninformed by the Radha. However, upon seeing Lily amongst the five, Ren eases somewhat and sighs to herself.

"Ah, it's you again, young Hexer."

"Hey there, Ren; we went and got permission from the Radha like you asked, but they didn't give us any kind of proof so…"

"Worry not, for a Radha soldier arrived a short while ago to inform me of your sanction." She and Tlachtga stand aside to leave the path ahead open for the Seekers to travel. "There are greater threats beyond the path ahead, so keep your wits about you, Seekers."

The team simply nods at Ren's warning and proceeds further down the path that was opened to them. Once again, Lily took up the role of cartographer while the rest of the team kept watch for enemies. After traveling a considerable distance and having taken a few turns, Alex looks to the others and asks, "The rest of you felt that, right?"

Nagato was first to answer, "Yeah, that woman was no ordinary warrior."

"Neither was that Hexer," Lucy quickly added.

A shiver went down Mitsuki's spine as she said, "I sure hope those two don't become our enemies anytime soon."

Lily failed to understand the group's apprehension. "They're both kinda nice in their own way when you get to chatting with them; making friends shouldn't be too difficult."

Though unnerved by the aura exuded by Ren and Tlachtga, the team finds itself put at ease by Lily's optimism and continues to press forward. After traversing several winding paths, the group steps through a door that seems to lead to a dead end, both paths blocked by incredibly large boulders. Alex approaches the one closest to the door and tries pushing it; he quickly realizes that this boulder wasn't going to budge, even if he managed to get help from his team.

The closest boulder also lacked any kind of footholds and seemed to be smooth in texture, making the task of scaling it a fruitless endeavor. The young Landsknecht curses to himself as he looks over to the second boulder barring the way of progress. After studying it for a moment, Alex realizes that this boulder has three protrusions jutting from the center of it.

"Hey guys, we might be able to climb this one. Nagato, you give me a boost and I'll pull up the rest of you."

"Sounds simple enough."

Walking over to the boys, Lily says, "If there was ever a time for you to have Earth Magic, it'd be now, Nagato. Splitting boulders like these in two would be easy for you."

"That's right, but there's nothing I can do about it at the moment."

Lucy felt that something was off about these boulders. '_What is this tension I feel? Are we being watched?_' She runs ahead of the group and tells Alex to halt the advance.

"Hm? What's up, Lucy?"

"I feel malice in the air, as if there is something in this room with us. You guys stand over there," She says as she points to the area next to where the second boulder was located, "I have something to test."

Confused as he was, Alex decided to trust Lucy's judgment and directs the others to the corner of this rather small room. Lucy steps off to the side, placing herself on the same plane as the second boulder. Suddenly, the ground shakes and the boulder comes to life, rising from the grass and revealing two small, orange eyes. The protrusions Alex noticed before were actually the stony tusks and snout of a boar-like creature.

"This must be one of the Boulder Boars Cyrus told us about; I guess we should have expected them to be on this floor, right?"

Lucy stared down the boar, taking caution to not agitate it with any sudden movements. This soon proved to be a waste, as the boar roars to the sky and charges at her anyway. Lucy proved to be much faster, deftly rolling to the side and leaving the boar to crash head-first into a tree. This was the opening the group was waiting for, so they took it without delay. This open path led them further into the same room, where another Boulder Boar appeared to be waiting for them. However, as this one looked too smooth to scale, the group decides that this was a boar with its back turned to them, and as such need not worry about it.

A door was standing straight ahead of them, as was a right turn that seemed to do nothing more than lead straight into the path of another Boulder Boar. Before opening this door, Nagato walks down the alternate path enough to give him room to peer his head around a tree. "I see a treasure chest down there…I want it."

Alex gives an awkward smile before saying, "There's another Boulder Bear down there; you really think you can dodge it?"

"Man, I'm good at dodging."

"The last time you said that, you took a water bullet to the face," Lily adds with a smirk on her face.

"That's because Specter was cheating."

"…Specter?" Lucy was unfamiliar with the name, as was Alex.

"Oh, he's just some punk-ass cat demon who thinks he's cooler than I am."

"He happens to be a prince, a pretty cool one at that; he's down to earth and easy to get along with."

"Ah," Alex says with a smile, "So he's like Lucy here; I get it."

Mitsuki peered down the path Nagato wanted to take one more time and says, "You should be able to trick that one and walk out with the treasure still in one piece. But if you get banged up a bit I can fix you up."

The Ronin narrowed his eyes at the Troubadour and replies, "I don't like how you said that so…plainly. It's like you expect me to hurt myself."

She smirks at him. "Oh, but I do. Handsome young men like you always, always go out of their way to look good and get hurt in the process. I expect the same from Alex too, but he's wearing armor so he'll at least fair better than you."

Nagato was now sporting a frown on his face. "Oh yeah?! Just watch this!" Before anyone can say something to stop him, Nagato jumped right in front of the Boulder Boar to catch its attention, followed by quickly jumping to the side to avoid its charge. The beast was now blocking the chest, but Nagato had a plan. Avoiding the boar's line of sight, he approaches it until he's close enough to touch one of the tusks. '_Good, this chest is as good as mine._' He repeats the steps he took before to bait the boar into a charge.

Much to the team's surprise, this plan was quite effective and went off without a hitch as Nagato returned to them unharmed. An arrogant smirk was worn upon his lips as he flipped his prize, a Copper Grimoire Stone, casually into the air. Catching it one last time, he points to Mitsuki and says, "And that's how it's done, sweet cheeks."

"You were impressive out there, I'll admit, but keep up that attitude and you're gonna get hurt later. But don't you worry, little man;" Mitsuki then smiles and points to herself with her thumb and finishes, "I won't let you die."

Nagato's eye twitches at that before he scoffs and proceeds through the door ahead of the others. Mitsuki giggles to herself before entering the next room alongside Lucy and Lily. Lily and Alex slammed a palm to their faces and groaned as they saw that this room had three exits, all of which seemed to be Boulder Boars. The two the group could see from the entrance, one to the left and the other slightly ahead and to the right, both appeared to be boars with their backs turned, so those exits were out of the question.

They all step forward as one unit, revealing a Boulder Boar, now angered by their presence, to be around the corner, completely in the team's blind spot. They all jump forward in unison to avoid the charge; once they catch their bearings, the group looks around to see that the fourth and final boar was facing into the room and that there was a small alcove to the left of the starting location of the boar that just charged them.

Nagato grunts in disdain before saying, "Looks like we'll have to fight one of them."

As the Ronin prepares to draw his katana, Alex holds his arm out to stop Nagato. His green eyes were locked in a focused gaze as he studied the area; the boulder boar that charged had finished recollecting itself and sat in place, waiting for another chance at catching its prey. Looking to the alcove, Alex thinks of an idea.

"You all wait here; I have a plan to get us out of this."

"Care to share this plan with us, leader?"

"These boars only move in one direction, Lucy, so all we have to do is trap this vertical one in that corner over there."

"Oh? And how do you propose w-" she took a second to glance at the area herself and realized Alex's meaning. "Ah, I see now. Clever thinking, Alex. Very well, I shall trust this to you."

The leader takes a few steps forward, enough to give him a considerable distance from the vertically charging Boulder Boar but also enough to stay out of the horizontal boar's line of sight. '_Cyrus didn't choose you as the leader for nothing, Alex; time to show them you can do more than swing an axe._' After exhaling a deep breath he'd been holding, Alex makes a slight dash forward to catch the vertical boar's attention. Pretending to be caught off guard, he sharply turns his head to meet the gaze of the boar before quickly jumping back.

He smirks to himself as the boar takes the bait and charges right into the alcove. Without missing a beat, Alex sidesteps to the right with his back turned to the horizontal boar, which catches its attention and makes it charge forward. Fortunately, Alex was still in control of the situation and dodged this boar as well, causing it to act as some sort of obstacle that the vertical Boulder Boar could no longer move past. Alex lets out a sigh of relief as he wipes the sweat from his forehead.

The Landsknecht suddenly found Mitsuki's arm wrapped around his shoulder and pulling him closer to her. "Now that was some fancy footwork, leader."

"Not to mention a well thought-out plan," Lily says as she tilts her head at the result of Alex's work.

"I feel that we could have taken them," Nagato says with a pout, "but if these creatures are so easily fooled I suppose my blade would be wasted on them. Good work proving that to me, Alex."

Lucy gives Alex a light punch to the shoulder and smiles at him. "The look on your face tells me that your doubts are clear."

His eyes slightly widen in surprise at Lucy's comment. He then rubs the back of his head and asks, "Was it really that obvious?"

"Cyrus is the same way so I can tell at a glance now."

"Really? He is?"

She nods to him. "And I can assure you that I have as much confidence in you now as I have in him; you'll do a fine job leading us so don't worry too much."

"I'll keep that in mind, Lucy…thanks."

The team proceeds through the opened way and, after avoiding one last Boulder Boar, proceeds through a door leading to the west side of the floor. Another door was here, despite the room being small and comparatively empty compared to what the Seekers had encountered prior. They shrug this off, thinking nothing of it and step through the next door. There was an injured Etrian soldier lying on the ground bleeding from several wounds upon his body.

The creature that appeared to be responsible for this was a white wolf, one that was an uncomfortably short distance away from the downed soldier. The team draws their weapons in preparation to intercept the beast, only for the sound of a bell to stop not only them, but also the wolf. Nagato looks to Lily, but quickly realizes that the bell that just sounded chimed at a slightly higher pitch than hers. It was soon after the chiming of this unseen bell that the wolf stopped its approach; in but a moment, the creature had blood pooling from its mouth as it fell to the forest's floor, dead.

The team quickly approaches the Etrian soldier to ensure his safety; as Mitsuki starts treating his wounds, the others form a circle around her in case more wolves arrived, or, worse still, the unseen entity that just killed the wolf before them. This unseen entity steps out of a bush and is revealed to be Tlachtga. Lily lets out a sigh of relief at the sight of the young girl before approaching her.

"Were you the one who took care of that wolf just now? That was an impressive curse you just used."

Tlachtga blushes and nods at the compliment, but says nothing as she steps up to the wounded soldier. "They don't see well, but their sense of smell is acute." Her statement implied that this soldier was injured this badly by something else. It was quite possible that he had a bad run-in with the Boulder Boars of the last room and collapsed from his injuries after pressing on this far, though the team had no way of knowing for certain. Tlachtga gave the soldier some sort of water to drink that hastened the closing of his wounds.

Once the soldier gives into his exhaustion, the young Hexer gently rests his head on the soft grass and looks to the others. She holds out another canteen and looks at each of the team expectantly. Seeing that the young girl wanted the team to drink this water as well, Alex steps forward, thanks Tlachtga, and takes a few sips of the canteen before handing it down the line to his guild mates. The water proved to have incredible powers, as the team felt rejuvenated, filled with enough vigor to continue their journey twice over.

"I will stay here with this soldier for awhile, so if you find yourself in trouble, come back here."

"Sure thing, Tlachtga; thanks for your help."

She nods at Lily and the Seekers guild sets off for the door beyond. Entering the next room reveals a shortcut as well as the staircase to the next floor. Invigorated by the water Tlachtga shared with them, the team collectively agrees to proceed on ahead. Touching down on the next floor, they immediately find a blocked shortcut to the north that leads deeper into the labyrinth, which makes Nagato frown.

The group sighs at their luck and goes back the way they came; a branching path awaited them, leaving them to start with the right path to see how far it travels. It proved to be the path of progress as they were eventually met with another branching path. They choose the north one this time, only to find that it leads to a dead end. Nagato curses their poor choice and kicks at the obstacle. Much to the group's surprise, a giant pinkish-purple beetle leaped out from the foliage near the blockade, bit the tip of Nagato's shoes, and clamped the pincers on its head to cling to the Ronin's leg.

Nagato, shocked by his assailant, jumps back and tries to swing his leg to get rid of the creature. "What in the actual fuck?! Get the Hell off me!" The beetle in question seemed to be happily enjoying itself as it gnawed on Nagato's shoe, given the smile on its face and the drool pooling around its maw.

He didn't appear to be in great danger, but the group knew better than to let a creature of the labyrinth have its way for too long. Nagato jerks his leg towards the air, which forces the beetle to release its captive as it flies into the sky. He suddenly found a visible wind of frost swirling around the blade of his katana when Mitsuki started singing a tune that seemed to drop the temperature of the area around the team.

Lily mutters a few words and puts the airborne beetle under the Frailty Curse. "Alright, Lucy, you're up next."

"Leave it to me." With one swift motion of her hand, Lucy sends her whip into the air to meet the beetle; her advance succeeds as she wraps her whip around the pincers of the creature and forcibly pulls it to the ground. As she sends the beetle back into the air, she shouts, "Nagato! Alex! Finish it off!"

The two wasted no time fulfilling that request; Nagato delivered an upward strike to send the beetle flying even higher into the sky. Alex followed this attack by jumping above the beetle and slamming his axe on its head, sending its now dead body crashing into the ground. Nagato gives the corpse another kick for good measure before sheathing his katana. The others share a laugh at the event, harvest the beetle's jaw, and continue on with their adventure.

Twilight was drawing upon them now, although the fourth floor was just as well lit as the first. The team removes the obstacle blocking their shortcut to this floor's entrance but soon find another blocked one to the north of their location. As some sort of strange compensation, Mitsuki rounds a corner near this impassable cluster and finds another Copper Grimoire Stone. Placing it with the rest of her team's belongings, she smiles to herself and quickly returns to the others.

Continuing down the second path near the impassable cluster, the group finds that they were led to another dead end. Before turning back the way they came, Lily notices one last path behind them. It leads to a treasure chest containing some sort of potion that she's never seen before. "Hm, does anyone know what this might be?"

Mitsuki steps forward and says, "That there is an Amrita, a useful item that restores one's ability to use their techniques. I don't think Shilleka has the materials to make these whenever she wants so we should definitely save any we find for emergencies."

"Ah, that's interesting…say, you know a lot about medicine, right Mitsuki? How come you're a bard and not a medic?"

She places her hands on her hip in response to that. "If I restricted myself to being a healer, I wouldn't be able to strengthen the others with my music. Not to mention…there may come a time when you guys can completely shut down an enemy without getting scratched. At that point, I'd be better off leaving the guild to join a clinic. I enjoy having others listen to the music I play, as well as healing those people."

Lucy crosses her arms and comments, "If you can do all that in addition to bolstering your allies, you'd have no reason to leave them for another profession."

"Yep, that's exactly right, Lucy; you guys aren't getting rid of me that easily."

Alex scoffs at that. "As if we'd ever want to. You're gonna have to do a lot better than that to get us to let you go."

"Now don't we sound confident, hot stuff?"

He smirks at the Troubadour and points at himself with his thumb. "I told my little sister I'd become the best Landsknecht she's ever known; I damn well need to have some confidence."

Nagato asks, "You have a sister? What's her name?"

"Her name's Amanda; it'd be cool to introduce you all to her, but since you might be leaving long before I return home, I guess that's just a dream."

"I only just now thought of this," Lucy says with a sense of sadness in her voice, "but what are you two going to do if the four of us find a way home as soon as this stratum is finished?"

"I suppose we could continue, but we'd need to recruit and train some new members."

Lily smiles as she says, "I'm sure anyone joining Seekers after we leave will be in good hands if you two stick around, Alex."

He blushes at that and tries to get the group to continue their adventure before his embarrassment could get any worse. Much to Nagato's delight, the winding turns and branching paths seemed to be at their end as the team approached a door. Opening it reveals a long corridor with a lone white wolf waiting at its end. Seeing the group step in, the wolf howls to the sky and assumes an intimidating stance.

"Looks like it wants to fight," Nagato says as he draws his katana. "Very well then, I shall help you on your road to Hell!"

Alex allows Nagato to charge ahead and issues orders to the group: "Lucy, bind that wolf's head; Lily, you keep a safe distance alongside Mitsuki; as for you, Mitsuki, think you could sing a song that'll give my axe some fire to its swings?"

Mitsuki merely smirks in response to his question. "Charge on ahead, Alex; I have you covered."

The white wolf proved to be no match for the team as Alex's strategy came together without resistance, leaving the Seekers' adversary overwhelmed and defeated in a matter of moments. The group went on to repeat this approach upon meeting another white wolf. They expected one more encounter but were pleased to be proven wrong as they stepped into the next room, which harbored the stairs to the fifth floor as well as the shortcut back.

As he and Alex move the obstruction barring the shortcut on the southern side of these trees, Nagato asks, "What kind of prick puts obstacles in front of shortcuts like this?"

"A real annoying one I'd imagine," Alex says with a frown on his face.

The moon was now out, bathing the labyrinth in a pale white glow once again. The team had descended to the fifth floor to be greeted by a long stretch of a path that seemed to have no end. "It's getting rather late; we should head back."

"I agree," Lucy says, "We managed to finish two floors in the time we had so there's no need to push ourselves any further."

Alex reaches into the team's pack and pulls out a spin of silvery thread. With a few flicks of his wrist, the thread seems to come to life as it surrounds the five members of the guild. When the glistening thread unravels around them and disappears into the air, the five find themselves back in Etria, specifically the town square. After catching their bearings they proceed in the direction of the Archive.

Stepping inside, the five see Leon and Eva sitting at the meeting table playing a game of chess; Rosa was also sitting at the table, sipping from a cup of tea as she watched Leon and Eva face each other in a game of wits. Lucy looks around but fails to locate Lissa or Cyrus. Upon inquiring their whereabouts, Rosa responds, "You will find both of them in the weight room just around the corner. I'd fetch them for you, but Master Cyrus asked that his training not be interrupted unless there was an emergency."

"Leave it to him to be that focused on his work," Nagato says with a chuckle. "I wonder what kind of training could possibly be so important."

"He came storming out of the weight room when Eva shrieked about seeing a spider," Leon said with a conniving grin on his face.

"Shut up, that spider was frickin' huge!"

"While he was relieved that no one was injured, Master Cyrus did say he was going to start his session over from the beginning…that was a few hours ago, so I've been checking in on him."

As Leon takes one of Eva's knights, he says, "You worry too much, Rosa; Lissa is with him so he won't overstrain himself."

"Yeah, that leader of ours can be quite assertive when she wants to be. You're gonna pay for taking him out, Leon; I'll let you know that now."

"Just try me, beautiful; we'll see how well you do."

The five decide to head to the weight room to give the guild leader their report; they find him in the center of the room doing push-ups as Lissa sits on his back. They could faintly hear the Alchemist counting to himself as Lissa loudly cheered him on.

Cyrus was straining as he pushed himself up once more, sweat dripping from his forehead. "2,497…" then back to the floor; three more instances of this and he finally falls to the floor, shouting, "2,500!" in an exhausted voice.

Lissa lifts herself off of him and helps Cyrus to his feet. "Good work there, boss; a promise is a promise, so drinks are on me the next time we head to the pub."

He fist pumps in response to that, despite the pain he felt in his arms at the moment. "Alright, that paid off even more than I thought it would." He takes a towel and wipes the sweat from his face. Upon seeing the others, he smiles and says, "Welcome back, everyone; how was the trip?" He waited for an answer, but only received varying stares from his team. Mitsuki, Alex, and Nagato sported looks of shock while Lily and Lucy were blushing at him. "What? Do I look strange? Is…is there something on my face?"

Lily quickly slapped her hands to her cheeks and said, "Damn, Cyrus; I didn't think you'd look like that underneath your shirt."

"Are you…referring to the long scar across my chest?"

"No, no, no, I'm talking about the abs I could do my laundry on."

"Oh, those; well, so long as no one's bothered by the scar I'm OK with this strange form of attention."

"That's the scar Gwen gave you, isn't it?"

"Oh that's right, I don't think you've ever seen it, Lucy…yeah, this is the one. Man did that katana cut deep."

Lissa had refrained from asking before, but now she couldn't hold back her curiosity. "Why'd your boss do that to you?"

"We were fighting a large bird that sent a pink gust of wind in our direction. That wind ended up sending Lady Gwenivere into a state of confusion, causing her to mistake me for the bird…apparently what she saw in her confused state was my dead body and that's what sent her into an incredible rage."

"She hasn't forgiven herself for that, you know."

"I know, Lucy, but I can hopefully help her change that with time."

Nagato puts a finger to his head and says, quite angrily, "You're a wizard; why the Hell do you need muscles like those?"

"I've fought dragons before; magic isn't enough to take care of one of their kind. Not to mention my fighting style back home requires a lot of resiliency."

"Cyrus incorporates the style of the Dark Knight into his own; the closer he is to death, the stronger his skills become."

"I can also siphon my own energy into my techniques to give them more of a kick. I wouldn't last long as a front line wizard without such methods. Perhaps these Grimoire Stones will allow me to bring that style over to Etria, but that remains to be seen." A malicious grin appears on his face as he says, "More experimentation must be done before I can clarify this." The grin is then promptly replaced with a warm smile. "But I can get to that later; how did things go in the labyrinth?"

Lucy, once again staring at Cyrus with a blush on her face, says, "You should shower before we get to that, Cyrus; I bet you reek of sweat right now."

Cyrus then gives her a blank stare as he points at her. "You're drooling, Lucy."

She quickly wipes her mouth and retorts, "Shut up, I suddenly started thinking about dinner; now go and hit the showers."

"Right, dinner; is that what the upper class calls it, Milady?" He found himself shivering as Lucy glared at him. "Speaking of dinner, I'll get on that as soon as the briefing is done. Uh…to the showers!" He then dashes out of the room before Lucy could turn her glare into something more tangible.

"Hmph, I'm going to teach that boy a lesson one day; he needs to respect his elders."

"Aren't you only two years older than him?" Lucy then turned her glare to Alex, only now she also wore a wicked grin on her face. "Because, uh…I was just thinking you two make such a cute couple! Yeah…"

Lucy then slipped back to her normal expression. "A couple huh…that'd be nice. Of course, it'd have to wait for quite some time, as we both have pressing matters to attend to at home."

Mitsuki asks, "Really? What kind?"

"I'm focusing on improving the living conditions of the middle class and impoverished…Cyrus is busy trying to fight a war he is thoroughly convinced he's the cause of. It's a bit complicated so perhaps we can both inform you all over dinner. Until then, let's relax; we've earned it after the day we just had."

Stretching, Nagato says, "Now that's a plan I can get behind."


	10. Spinning the Tale

_Author's Notes: This is going to feel like a shorter chapter, as it primarily consists of dialogue. To remedy this, I plan to post three chapters this week; one for today, another on Wednesday, and the third on Friday. The Seekers are nearing the end of the first stratum so I find myself feeling the urge to write until we get there._

**Chapter 10: Spinning the Tale**

As promised, Cyrus worked with Rosa to cook dinner for the rest of the guild; their choice of dish ended up being a beef stew comprised of creatures, herbs, and vegetables gathered from within the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. The recipients of this meal watched as their leader carried the stew into the dining room, their mouths watering from the enticing aroma that wafted from inside the lid-free pot. The Alchemist served each member of his team, as well as Rosa, a bowl nearly filled to the brim before making one for himself.

He sat himself between Lucy and Alex, which also placed him directly across from Nagato, who was already digging into his meal. Nagato took a moment to move his silver hair out of his face, as he was enjoying his meal with a bit too much fervor. "Good to know your cooking skills transcend dimensions, Cyrus."

Cyrus chuckles at that as he twirls the spoon in his grip. "I'm glad you find my cooking worth the compliment."

Alex was also enjoying the stew, practically trying to down the bowl in one go; he sets his bowl down to the table and lets a smile form on his face. "Damn that's good stew! Is there anything you can't do, Boss?"

"If you can believe it, I can't use healing magic."

"That shouldn't be a problem for you here, Cyrus," Lucy says as she sets her spoon down, "you can just use a Grimoire Stone to get around it."

"I actually can't; Lily and I tried that while you all were at the pub."

"So White Magic is out of your spectrum, even across different dimensions…"

Nagato finishes his bowl before the others, much to Alex's surprise. As he stands up to fill his bowl up with a second helping, he asks, "Aren't you a master wizard in Erdboden?"

"Master is a bit much," he replies with a laugh. "I still have a long way to go before I can compare myself to a master, especially my own; she's in a league of her own."

"Cyrus was born into a family that specialized in both medicine and White Magic, but for some strange reason he had an affinity for Black Magic, a school no one else in his family can use."

"So you're the black sheep, as it were," Mitsuki says.

"It's just as you say. My connection to offensive magic is so strong that I can't even cast a basic healing spell. I'm incredibly grateful that standard medicinal practices never died out or I'd feel completely useless."

"Useless is a strong word, Cyrus," Lissa says with a frown.

"Yeah, you have a lot of other skills to make up for that."

"Eva has a point, Cyrus," Leon adds, "those skills are gonna get you through whatever problems you have to deal with at home."

"The war, for example," Lucy muttered.

"You mentioned that before, Lucy, can you tell us about it now?"

"Yes, very well. The emperor of the Alabaster Empire has decided that ruling one nation isn't enough and is working to spread his rule to other kingdoms. Were that all to the tale it would be just another of its kind."

"However," Cyrus begins with a sigh, "our world runs on a cycle, and we are approaching what is the end of the current one. This isn't a normal occurrence, but this cycle has two ways it can end, as far as any mortal is concerned; the emperor is moving Heaven and Hell alike in his effort to make sure he gets the ending he thinks is best."

Finally taking a moment to stop eating his second bowl of stew, Nagato asks, "What kind of cycle are we talking about?"

Lucy takes up the story's thread to leave Cyrus to gather his thoughts. "You could look at our world as a science experiment carried out by our gods. Every few thousand years or so, the world gets completely 'reset', as it were…well, that's not entirely true. There are some locations that carry over to the next world, such as the realm of the gods, the Seven Hells, and this absurdly dangerous forest known as the Sinister Jungle."

Lily donned an expression of shock on her face, as did Rosa. "So you all live like lab rats? That's terrible!"

"I'm surprised you two manage to be as cheerful as you are."

"It's not like that, Alex," Cyrus says with a dismissive wave of his hand. "The gods work to create an everlasting paradise, and we help them do that by giving them the means of directly observing us by serving as vessels."

"Cyrus is one of such vessels; he serves as the vessel to Shinryu, the Rebirth Dragon. That particular god, as his name implies, is actually the one directly responsible for the reincarnation of all living beings, including Erdboden itself."

Cyrus suddenly found everyone staring at him with looks of intrigue. Alex was the first to break out of his reverie; he asks, "You're connected to a god? What's that like? Is that why you're so strong?"

"Not at all," Cyrus responds, much to the surprise of everyone present. "Vessels are chosen based on how similar they are to the god in question. I'm not bestowed any special traits like superhuman strength or immortality; you'd be surprised at how many people think that. Although, Shinryu has entertained the thought of teaching me a spell that is unique to him."

"So what's any of that got to do with the war that's going on?"

"There's always a prophecy tied to Shinryu, one that tells of what the previous world's cycle was like and when we can expect the current one to end."

"This prophecy," Lucy adds, "is different; this one is vague on how it ends, giving mention of how a Paladin, a man with a runic eye, and a team led by that Paladin will go on to confront the Rebirth Dragon."

Rosa asks, "Which group wins this confrontation?"

"No clue," Lucy admits while shaking her head. "No one is certain if the 'confrontation' is even a battle to begin with."

Eva asks, "Do you at least know who the mentioned people are?"

Smiling, Lucy nods and says, "We do. Cyrus here is the one with the runic eye, and the leader of his guild in Erdboden just so happens to be the Paladin."

"The emperor, still unaware of the Paladin, given that the prophecy also made vague mention of a specific shield in the Paladin's possession, has gone to great lengths to make sure this 'confrontation' simply does not occur. This led to the murder of my family that I mentioned earlier, Lily…it was to get to me."

"He was willing to murder a child over that?"

Getting his third bowl, Nagato says, "Let me take a crack at this. This emperor is basically trying to fuck the world over so that, even if you guys do prove a point to the gods, the world is so screwed that it has to be reborn anyway?"

"That's the conclusion we've come to, yes."

"Cyrus, the war isn't your fault, dude."

"Yeah, Nagato's right; this emperor is clearly the one to blame," Lily says before eating a spoonful of her stew.

"I can understand why you feel guilty, Boss, but it's not like you made the choice to be a part of that prophecy."

"I agree with Alex," Mitsuki says, "I bet you didn't choose to make your left eye look that way either."

Cyrus stops eating upon hearing that; he looked rather surprised that Mitsuki made that connection. He chuckles to himself and says, "You're right about that, Mitsuki, but it should be known that I would have died when I was only six years old had my eye not ended up this way. It helped me keep all of the magic flowing into me under control."

"So uh…" Lissa nervously begins, "what happens if your eye were to turn back now? Or, worse…if you lost it?"

Cyrus runs a hand through his hair at that question, promptly turning his gaze from Lissa to the table beneath him. He exhales a sharp breath before looking back to her, an expression of nervousness upon his face.

"No one knows, not even Shinryu, the one who made my eye this way. However, I surmise that, at this point in my life, one of two things would happen: Either nothing would happen, as my body has developed enough to handle that strong of an aetherial flow, or I'd explode as all the magic releases at once, killing me instantly as well as running the risk of causing tremendous damage to the immediate area around me."

Everyone at the table shuddered at that information. A silence fell upon the dinner table now, one that Cyrus found himself feeling guilty about. He sighs to himself before saying, "You all needn't dwell on such a morbid thought, I'm sure I'll be fine."

"He's been through all Seven Hells…and goes to the seventh to train on a regular basis; it'll take a lot to kill Cyrus."

Alex and Mitsuki looked to the guild's leader with awkward smiles on their faces. The former says, "I don't know if I should be impressed or terrified of you, Boss."

"Never a dull moment with this one, that's for sure."

"Oh, please, you two flatter me."

"Right, so what's the story of our little princess?" Eva asks.

Lucy, not wanting to actually dive into this particular subject, attempts to eat another spoonful of her stew; she fails to realize that there's nothing left in her bowl, almost as if to spite her. She sighs to herself and curses internally. While fixing herself a second bowl, she begins, "As you are all aware, I am a princess belonging to the House of Jade." She sits back down and sighs to herself, glancing at Cyrus for a silent request of support. As their eyes meet, she could see that he was looking to her with a warm smile on his face. That brought a soft smile to her own and she finds herself feeling more at ease.

Nagato responds, "You also told us that your little sister is the one in charge right now; the Hell's up with that?"

"Ah, that, I misspoke; my sister is still working on proving her worth to the throne right now, but those trials are mere formalities at this point. She's more than qualified. The reason I'm not undertaking those trials in her stead is because I…I'm not a legitimate heir. My father had a relationship with my mother, who was not of noble birth, three years before he actually had someone to share the throne with. I can't tell you much about my mother, as she was quite frail, and died a year after I was born, but my father still speaks fondly of her."

"Your father couldn't just, I don't know, declare her as a noble?"

"You have to be a knight to get that sort of privilege," Cyrus says, "one that has worked high enough through the ranks as well…and even then, some nobles simply won't acknowledge you."

"You speak from experience, Boss?" Cyrus' response is but a silent nod.

Continuing her story's thread, Lucy says, "Due to the nature of my birth, I lack authority in the ever so lovely realm of politics." She blushes as she takes a quick glance at Cyrus, who fails to notice this, before continuing, "I must admit that I am quite fond of commoners, and I hate to see them suffer. As such, my lack of power is rather irksome when it comes to improving their lives."

Rosa takes a sip of tea and asks, "Is that why you took on the guise of a mercenary?"

"I actually didn't take on this role until after I met Cyrus two years ago; he helped me realize that there were things I was capable of despite not having a stance in politics. I changed my hair, took on an alias, and then tried changing my attire so that no one would recognize me."

"It didn't work," Cyrus says before bursting into laughter.

Lucy pouts at him, a look of embarrassment appearing on her face. "Well excuse me for not thinking of a name better than 'Lucy'!"

"It's the hair, Lucy, not the name; even though you changed your hairstyle, those drill-like twin tails aren't enough to mask your usual way of treating the common folk…and the color is one that is practically unique to you, at least as far as I'm concerned."

She scoffs at him. "That just means you haven't met enough red-heads; we're not exactly rare."

"I've met the Scarlet Dragoon."

"The goddess doesn't count!"

"You and your sister are on good terms, right?"

"Hm? What do you mean by that, Ale- oh, that; yes, we are. I cherish my little sister and have no desire to take the throne from her. She and I are above such petty squabbles."

"And yet you both argue over whose sword looks cooler."

"Well that's because mine is obviously superior; even a novice would be able to tell. Hmph."

Cyrus has a laugh at Lucy's slight frustration with him. After recounting the most recent dive into the labyrinth and finishing dinner, the guild opts to turn in for the night, save for Alex, who was currently sitting in the manor's library. Two books were currently resting on the table in front of him, as well as a lit candle to illuminate the room. He was out of his usual armor right now, opting to don a black shirt with a matching pair of pajama pants. The Landsknecht sat there reading one of his books, occasionally humming a tune to himself as he rested his cheek on his left hand.

Before long, Cyrus steps into the library and takes a seat next to Alex. The two sat together quietly for a time, content with just reading from this piece of text. After a short while, Cyrus realizes that the book Alex is reading is about Landsknechts and how one may go about training to be one. He turns his attention from the pages below towards his guild mate, who appeared to be quite focused on his reading.

"This sure is a versatile role," he says, breaking the almost deafening silence of the library. "I take it you struggled to find your focus?"

"Boy did I ever," Alex replies with a light chuckle. "Growing up, I learned that I don't really like swords all that much; axes turned out to be much better for me. Little did I realize that my tiny amount of skill with a blade would open up some more possibilities for me. Although…" His voice trailed off at that moment, his face donning a somewhat somber expression.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Tell me something, Boss, you have any younger siblings? Ones that you want to impress?"

"I'm the youngest of my parents' three children…the only one who's still alive as well. My brother and sister both perished in the fire."

"Oh…I see, I didn't mean to bring up those memories."

"You're fine, at any rate, I can understand your plight; I took up the spear because of my older sister."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I can also wield swords, although you're one of the only two people who actually know that."

"Is Lucy the second?"

"Nope, Lady Gwenivere is the other. I don't go out of my way to keep it a secret or anything, but it never really comes up in conversation."

"I thought you came from a medical family?"

"I do; my father's strictly a doctor; the three of us got the combat skills from our mother, who was a well known hero throughout Erdboden. She was also a medic, being a Paladin and all." He sighs to himself as his eyes evoke a sense of sadness. '_My world lost four great people that night, four people I can never bring back to it._'

Seeing the sad look in Cyrus' eyes, Alex places a hand on the Alchemist's shoulder and smiles at him. "Boss, I can't even begin to imagine the way you must feel, but I know that you're a good man."

"Good men don't kill people, Alex."

"You're in a war; that's inevitable! Look, I can tell you're good because you mean well, and I understand that good men…don't always end up doing well. You can't let yourself deal in absolutes like that."

He didn't intend to show it, but Cyrus found a smile brought to his face when Alex said his piece. "I think your sister picked a good role model. Tell me, is she the reason you became an adventurer?"

"She's the main reason, yeah; Amanda always looked up to heroes written in picture books and novels. One day she came home from school with a drawing in her hand. It…" his voice trailed off as a smile graced his lips. "It was a simple doodle of me standing on top of a mountain of dead monsters, holding an axe on my shoulder as I stared into the distance. All of the kids were told to draw their favorite hero…and of all the choices she had, my sister chose me."

"She made a good choice from the sounds of it."

"Heh, you think so? I still have a long way to go before I'm worth that kind of respect."

"But you're working for it, so you'll surely earn it in time. Personally, I hope I get to stay here long enough to see you become that hero." Alex stared at him in surprise upon hearing that, but Cyrus rose from his seat and walked away before he could respond. Before Cyrus was out of earshot, he says, "I knew I made the right choice when I picked the off-leader." He spoke his piece softly, but made sure he was loud enough for Alex to hear him.

The morning arrives and two members of the guild, Cyrus and Lissa, find themselves sitting at the Golden Deer Pub. A few new faces were sitting nearby at the counter today; they were also explorers from the looks of it. The one closest to Cyrus, sitting right next to him in fact, was a blonde Dark Hunter with blue eyes. She sat at the bar with her legs crossed, and shot a smile at Cyrus once their gazes met by chance. The two found themselves unable to break eye contact, sitting in silence for a short time.

"No shortage of lovely women in this land, I see." Cyrus' warm smile suddenly fades as he brings his palm to his face. "I wasn't supposed to say that aloud."

The Dark Hunter giggles to herself before giving a reply. "Now aren't you a cute and honest one? Are you also an explorer?"

"That's right, I'm an Alchemist with the Seekers Guild."

"The Seekers? I've heard about those newcomers; their leader is an unorthodox Alchemist from what I've heard so I guess that's you?"

"Unorthodox? What, uh…" he suddenly felt very nervous, as if the answer to this question was one he didn't wish to hear, "…what do they mean by that?"

Pointing at the spear on Cyrus' back, the Dark Hunter says, "Your weapon of choice for one thing. I also heard from Valerie that you took on a Ragelope by yourself."

"A friend of mine was in danger of being trampled; I wasn't going to stand by and let that happen."

"I've seen eyes like yours before; honest, focused, full of justice. The color is usually different, but the emotions rarely differ. But your eyes strike me as different…unique."

He smirks and asks, "It's because of the left eye, isn't it?"

She laughs at that before shaking her head. "That left eye is certainly something I've never seen before, but that's not what I meant. I can also tell from your eyes that you're no stranger to the horrors of battle; you've seen your share of carnage. And yet…you still retain the innocence of a novice. This look is refreshing to me…I just can't take my eyes off of you."

Cyrus blushed and found himself suddenly unable to speak, letting out a barely audible, "Huh?"

Valerie approached the two and let out a short laugh. "Still popular with the ladies, eh, kiddo?"

"It's not like I do this on purpose; my sister always told me to be honest with people, especially girls."

"Aren't you just adorable? I could eat you right up." Her stomach then promptly growled, quite loudly too. A blush formed on her face as she looked down at the counter.

"Can't go exploring on an empty stomach, now can we?" Cyrus then places some gold, ental as it was called here, onto the counter and follows, "Madame Valerie? Would this be enough for a meal for two?"

"You bet. I'll have something whipped up for you two lovebirds in a sec."

He was stammering as he said, "Lovebirds? It's not like that at all!"

The bar owner laughs off his claim as she turns around and walks to the kitchen, dismissively waving her hand as Cyrus continued to deny the implications of his actions. Before long, Valerie returns with their meal, one that Cyrus and the Dark Hunter devoured in a matter of minutes. Cyrus found himself impressed with this woman's appetite.

She wipes her mouth with a cloth and lets out a sigh; a content smile forms on her face and she says, "That hit the spot; thanks for the meal. You're a nice guy."

"I get that a lot. May I ask you something?"

"It'd be rude to refuse; you did just feed me, after all."

"What are the skills a Dark Hunter uses in battle? A friend of mine and I are foreigners, for lack of a better term; we took on the roles we have now due to how close they were to the ones we played back home."

"So you're not an Alchemist?"

"Not by trade; I'm a wizard, but I can barely cast my spells here in Etria without the use of this cool gauntlet. Likewise, my friend is a mercenary, but, because of her choice of attire, everyone keeps calling her a Dark Hunter." He rubs the back of his head as a sheepish smile forms on his face. "I suppose it doesn't help that she chose to take up mastering the whip for combat shortly before we came here; she normally wields a saber."

"Dark Hunters wield swords as well, although the sword-wielding variety is actually pretty rare."

"Is there a particular reason for that?"

"Most explorers find it more useful to use a whip to bind enemies in the labyrinth; if you want deadly ailments, it's better to sign up a Hexer. So, what makes you think I can help?"

"You look strong, so I figured it would behoove me to ask someone experienced."

"Ooh, aren't you a smooth talker? Flattery won't get you very far, young man."

"But food most certainly will!"

She pokes him on the nose and giggles to herself. "Keep training that brain of yours and you'll get even further. Tell you what, bring your girlfriend to the bar with you next time and I'll be sure to help you two out. If you're lucky, I might bring my Alchemist along and you two can exchange your knowledge."

"You have yourself a deal; perhaps I can share another meal with yo- wait a minute, she's not my girlfriend."

He wanted to give a light explanation of his relationship with Lucy, but Lissa tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, derailing his train of thought in the process. "Cyrus, I have some requests for us to handle. We got another one from the merchant over in the back, but I've given him the information he wants so we'll just wait for his report."

"Ah, good work, Lissa. What about the others?"

"These are mostly gathering quests, but we're going to need you to handle this one; we need…five Insect Eyes."

The Dark Hunter's face lit up at the mention of the material. "Ah, those; you get 'em by killing Woodflies without using physical attacks."

"Is that right? Heh, you appear to be a varied spring of knowledge. I might have to pick your brain later for more of the labyrinth's secrets."

"Just be sure to have some money on hand; my stomach has a bad habit of going empty, Cyrus. Since we'll be getting acquainted later, you can call me Hilda."

"Hilda? Right, I'll dedicate that name to memory."

"I'll fill you in on the rest of the requests on the way out; shall we get going?"

He pats Lissa on the shoulder and replies, "Sure thing, we'll try to get these done quickly so we can start mapping the fifth floor."

_Author's Notes: I plan to make some of the bar frequenters relevant to this particular story, so I felt that I had to give the "Leggy Dark Hunter" an actual name. The same will apply to the future adventurers; I hope no one finds that to be too jarring of a narrative choice._


	11. Staring Down the Roar

**Chapter 11: Staring Down the Roar**

Lissa walked beside her guild leader as she explained the requirements of the tasks she chose at the Golden Deer Pub. Instead of heading straight for the labyrinth, she was leading Cyrus to Shilleka's shop; Cyrus paid this no heed, concluding that Lissa simply wanted to stock up on some Medicas before heading into the labyrinth. When the duo stepped into the shop, Shilleka looks to greet them, her bright smile greatly contrasting with the freshly sharpened swords littered in the shop around her.

"What can I fix ya guys wit' t'day?"

"We're actually here because we took your request," Lissa says with a smile.

"Oh, really? I'm ready ta go if you are."

"Uh…Lissa? What exactly does this request entail?"

"Aw, ya didn't tell 'im yet? Your guild is takin' me on a little trip into da labyrinth!" Though shocked by this revelation, Cyrus quickly affirms Shilleka's safety, to which she happily replies, "Oh please, I'm not worried; ya just worry 'bout your adventurin' t'ing and I'll watch from da side."

Before departing, Cyrus and Lissa purchase an Ariadne Thread from Shilleka after realizing that their spares had been used. Lissa openly questions the need for this when Cyrus can simply use the Return Formula for free, but Cyrus holds firm on preparing for the unexpected. A short travel later and the trio arrives at the first floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. According to Lissa, none of the accepted requests involved going to gathering points, leaving Eva and Leon to take a break from this trip.

"The innkeeper requires a wolf pelt, right, Lissa?"

"That's right, but I don't think we can find those unless we head to the fifth floor…and face an F.O.E on top of that."

"You have a point; the wolves may not have occupied the entirety of the floor, but they likely have scouts stationed. Hey, Shilleka," he calls as he turns to the shop owner, "how far down did you wish us to escort you?"

"I want ta see how ya explorers work, so I was t'inking seeing some F. would be a good start."

"If you see what we're up against, it'll give you a better sense of what sort of equipment we'll need; yes, yes, that's something my mother once told me."

"So ya learned smithin' from ya mom?"

"Indeed."

"Your weapons are already top notch, Shilleka, but if you're trying to improve I'm not gonna stop you."

"T'at's the spirit! Come on, let's go! First up is the Ragelope!"

Lissa raised a finger upon hearing that, as if wanting to admonish Shilleka's enthusiastic interest in such a dangerous inhabitant of the labyrinth, but was quickly interrupted when Cyrus took her hand into his own and pulled her along the path to the staircase. The trio touches down on the second floor and Cyrus leads the way to the nearest Ragelope. As the large creature patrolled its territory, the three watched from afar, hidden in a bush.

From this vantage point, the Ragelope didn't seem nearly as dangerous as it did when the Seekers Guild first started their journey, though Cyrus attributed that to how the Ragelope currently looked no different from an ordinary forest animal. It was feeding on the grass below, looking rather docile despite the fearsome look in its featureless, orange eyes.

"Alright," Cyrus starts, taking care to keep his voice down, "have you studied this Ragelope enough?"

"It really is a feisty lookin' beast; ya really took on one by yourself?"

"I don't recommend such reckless actions, but I didn't have much choice…how many people did Madame Valerie tell that incident to?"

"When one explorer learns somethin', the info spreads like wildfire. We can move on now; t'ink you can show me a Boulder Boar next?"

Lissa and Cyrus nod to her and make their way for an area deeper within the second floor. Cyrus deliberately steps in front of a Boulder Boar to catch its attention, quickly rolling out its path when the agitated creature charged at him. Shilleka looked quite surprised with the boar and the speed it demonstrated.

Joining up with Cyrus alongside Lissa, Shilleka says, "T'at was somethin' alright; you guys haven't taken down one of t'ose t'ings yet, right?"

"Not yet," Cyrus admits, "but I wouldn't be surprised if the main team could handle one now. I'll be sure to let them know the materials from this creature could prove valuable to you."

"I'm curious to see what you could turn that boar into," Lissa says as she holds her arms behind her head. "Its materials could make for a cool weapon."

"I bet I can t'ink of somethin'. Alright, t'ere's just one more nasty monster I wanna see; t'ere are Reaping Shades on the third floor, right?"

Cyrus tilted his head at the name of the creature, ignorant to what it refers to. He takes a moment to think on it before asking, "Is that the name of the giant mantis?" Shilleka nods to him. "Ah, I see; very well, we can do that, but you'll want to stay close to us."

"Reaping Shades are speedy creatures that charge at intruders immediately after detecting them."

On the way to the staircase leading to the third floor, Lissa stops near a small area that appeared to be an abundant source of herbs. Unfortunately, one could also see a nest containing hatched butterfly eggs a fair distance into the field upon closer inspection. Thinking to the quest she accepted from the pub, Lissa calls Cyrus and Shilleka over to observe the sight.

"We did accept the quest to rid the apothecary student of these troublesome bugs…but should we do it while Shilleka is with us?"

Turning to the woman in question, Cyrus asks, "It would give you a chance to see how your crafted goods are being put to use; do you think you'll be alright?"

She nods to him and replies, "Sure t'ing! All I gotta do is stay outta da way, right? You two show 'em who's boss."

Lissa nods, accepting Shilleka's decision and turns her attention back to Cyrus. "We can also get those five Insect Eyes for Valerie by doing this." She takes up her bow and steps a considerable distance behind Cyrus. Shilleka takes refuge within a nearby bush, barely poking her head out so that her view of the upcoming battle was not obscured. Seeing this, Lissa says, "Cyrus, we're ready to go."

The two take a cautious step forward, which catches the attention of something rustling in the bushes straight ahead of them. The duo didn't have long to ponder what they had disturbed, as a swarm of Woodflies attack them. At this point in their adventuring careers, a simple swarm of Woodflies proved to be no match for the combined efforts of Cyrus and Lissa. Cyrus expended a lot of his vial of Volt Formula in his endeavor to gather Insect Eyes, needing to reload his gauntlet as Lissa took care of the remainder of the swarm.

The area seemed to die down just as Cyrus finished reloading. He sighs to himself as he looks to the corpses of the enemies that now littered the stratum's floor. Lissa hadn't strapped her bow to her back, causing Cyrus to move slightly closer to her in preparation for another attack. This turned out to be the smart choice, as two more Woodflies entered the fray, flanking what could only be the leader of the nest. It was an incredibly large Woodfly, one that was roughly the size of a teenage human.

Shilleka gasped at the sight, in awe of what she saw as an impressive creature. Lissa's expression tensed as she backed away cautiously from the trio of Woodflies. Cyrus, however, sported a mixed expression of confusion and astonishment. He motioned his hands at the giant Woodfly, speechless as he turned to Lissa for some sort of comment. His face seemed to scream, "Am I really seeing this right now?!" Lissa simply smiled at him, her previous tension fading away just as quickly as it had arrived.

The two make short work of the remaining Woodflies and clean the area before moving on to their next destination, the third floor; Shilleka's final request was to see a Reaping Shade in person. The trio touches down on the floor and immediately catches the mantis' attention. It doesn't charge at them, instead choosing to quietly observe from afar and menacingly sharpen its arm scythes.

Shilleka raises an eyebrow at this strange behavior and asks, "I heard t'ese t'ings were aggressive; why is t'is one…just standing t'ere?"

"That is a fantastic question," Cyrus declares, "when Lily and I were down here this Reaping Shade charged at us immediately."

"It wouldn't be safe to bring you any closer to it, Shilleka."

"T'at's OK, I t'ink I've seen plenty. You two are gonna stay down here, yeah?" They nod in response. Shilleka then pulls out a spin of Ariadne Thread and says, "T'en I'll just warp out of here now and see ya both when ya get back ta town; I'll leave your reward at da bar. T'anks again for showing me around!" The two wave to her as she is encircled by the Ariadne Thread and disappears from the labyrinth.

Turning her attention back to the Reaping Shade, Lissa stares at the creature for a moment before looking to Cyrus and asking, "So, what's the plan?" He smiles at her and takes a knee, placing his gauntlet to the ground. Lissa steps closer to Cyrus when she sees the familiar magic circle of the Return Formula forming around hm. "Did you forget something?"

"Not quite; I'm testing to see if I can use the Return Formula to warp to familiar locations the same way I used my dark magic in Erdboden. By studying our maps, I can visualize the areas that we have charted in detail and possibly set those areas as destinations."

She places a finger to her chin and looks to the sky, considering Cyrus' explanation. "It's a sound plan, but do you really think that will work?"

"There's only one way to find out." The magic circle shimmered around them both and teleported them to a new destination. Lissa looked around as the light around them began to fade away; she expected to see the main plaza of Etria, but her eyes widen in amazement when she finds herself standing next to Cyrus in a room somewhere within the Yggdrasil Labyrinth.

"Check it out, Cyrus; we really warped within the labyrinth!"

He stands up to check the maps drawn by his guild, specifically the map of the fourth floor that Lily drew. Cyrus studies the map and looks around the room to confirm if his spell worked properly. His intended destination was the staircase leading down to the fifth floor; it appeared that the warp was indeed successful. Rolling up the map and placing it in the pack on his back, Cyrus nods to himself and directs Lissa to the staircase.

Their descent greets them with the sight Cyrus was hoping to see, which was the long stretch of grass that Alex's group opted to leave for a future trip to the labyrinth. He and Lissa nod to each other and progress down the path, with the latter taking point so that they don't run into unnecessary encounters. This floor of the labyrinth felt different from the others, as if it was significantly larger than any floor the Seekers have mapped thus far.

After taking several turns, the duo stumbles across a treasure chest containing a Copper Grimoire Stone. Sadly, the long winded path they just took led only to this chest, forcing them to retrace their steps to the previous crossroad. Going down the alternate path leads them to a mining point, as well as another branching path. As it turns out, this path was nothing more than a loop, which the two were thankful for.

The path that continued straight ahead led to a room that was empty; neither Cyrus nor Lissa could discern any possible use for this tiny room, so they, once again, turned back the way they came. Poor fortune continued to grace this duo as they reached a dead end at the southern area of the floor. As if to rub salt in the wound, the obstruction that was blocking the path, a collection of wood that neither budged nor could be scaled, could be peered through.

"Cyrus, I see two blue wolves up ahead…damn it!"

He walks next to Lissa to confirm that her frustration wasn't clouding her vision. Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him as well, Cyrus could also see the forms of two blue wolves sitting in place while surveying the area. "You have got to be kidding me; we have to go around." The two try one last time to move the obstruction, only to realize that it was indeed immovable. Accepting their defeat, they sigh and retrace their steps.

Eventually, they come to a turn that houses a shortcut, one that sends them close to the mining point they discovered before. "Finally, a lucky break," Lissa says with a renewed sense of confidence, "now we won't have to walk that whole way again!" The two take a right turn that leads to an immediate dead end, one where a small flock of birds were chirping in unison. The melody of these birds was rather soothing to the adventurers, so they opted to rest in this clearing.

Lissa sighs to herself as she takes a seat on the soft grass beneath her; looking to her partner, she could see that Cyrus was knelt to the ground, currently digging into the pack that he was wearing on his back just a few moments before. She tilts her head as she watches her guild's leader search through the bag, wondering if she should offer him some help. A cool breeze blew from the east, one that Lissa found to be refreshing.

'_With the place being this serene, you'd never imagine it was a deathtrap._' She spent a moment taking in the relaxing atmosphere, only for her concentration to be broken as something cold was touched to her cheek. She instinctively shifts to the side to avoid whatever was touching her and looks to see…Cyrus, smiling at her while shaking a canteen. Accepting the canteen, albeit with a frown on her face, she says, "Geez, don't scare me like that."

"Sorry," he says with a chuckle, "I couldn't resist; you looked so cute that I just had to mess with you."

"Do you always flirt with a girl the first chance you get?"

"I do, yes; you could consider it an off-profession. Although…I will say that my efforts here in Etria have been graced with far less pain."

"Pain?" She almost flinched at the thought of Cyrus' meaning. "How vulgar are you?"

"Vulgar? Oh no, you misunderstand; back home, the girls I tend to flirt with are the ones who are rather close to me; childhood friends and other ladies of such ilk."

She raises an eyebrow, now suspicious of his claims. "Why would that bring you pain?"

"Well one of them doesn't know how to take a compliment; she also just so happens to be one of the best martial artists in the Land of Mages…she uh…she could probably snap me like a twig using just two fingers."

"You keep strange company, Cyrus," she says bluntly; she wasn't even making an effort to hide the incredulous look on her face.

"If I had a gold piece for every time someone said that to me, I could buy out a kingdom."

Lissa takes a sip from her canteen, expecting to taste spring water, but much to her surprise she tasted something sweet with a familiar citrus flavor. "Is this…orange juice?" Cyrus nods to her, leaving her to ask, "It tastes fresh too; did you buy this recently?"

He shakes his head in response to that. "I learned a few tricks about farming from my old man. I took the time to pick some oranges from the labyrinth and, with Madame Rosa's assistance, prepared orange juice."

"Ooh, so we have more of this stored at the manor?"

"That's right, so feel free to drink as much as you want. I figured you and I would be here awhile so I brought plenty of reserves."

"You know, you'd be a great Survivalist if you didn't practice magic."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, you're always prepared, know how to treat injuries…you're a good cook. And if things turn to the worst, you can hold your own against the monsters as well."

"I always knew my time spent alone in places like the Sinister Jungle would pay off."

That name sounded familiar to Lissa, prompting her to think back to when she first heard of it. "Isn't that the name of the dangerous forest Lucy mentioned?"

"It is, and she's also right about it being absurdly dangerous. As one of the few locations on Erdboden that never gets reset, the creatures that live within it only increment in strength as time moves forward."

"And you spend time there alone?"  
>"Part of my training, I'm afraid. Normally, I wouldn't be perturbed, but there are these creatures known as Gigapedes in there."<p>

"So…giant centipedes?"

"Yes." He visibly shudders as he wraps his arms around himself. A look of fear was etched onto his face now, one that was made only when the most horrible of memories were brought back to the mind's surface. "Those horrid creatures are some of the greatest terrors I've ever seen."

"Aren't you the guy who wrestled with a dragon goddess? What's a centipede compared to you?"

"The Scarlet Dragoon can turn into a giant red wyrm that can either crush me beneath her claw or fire a stream of lava at me; both of those would very likely kill me instantaneously. Gigapedes like to play with their food, entwining them so that they're bound and unable to look away from the piercing red eyes and serrated mandibles of the beast that will surely wrench the life from their quivering bodies."

"That was an oddly specific description."

"They also have a variety of toxins to use for situations. It can range from simply causing paralysis to being acidic enough to melt through a healthy tree trunk in seconds. I almost met my end to one of those once; during my first solo three-day stay in the Sinister Jungle when I was twelve."

"That'd explain why you're afraid of them; an experience like that would be scarring for anyone, especially someone that young." She rises to her feet and helps Cyrus to his own. Smiling at him, she gently grabs his hand and says, "Come on, let's get moving; a little adventure will take your mind off those big, bag centipedes."

"It sounds really condescending when you say it that way, you know."

"Maybe I like teasing you? You never know."

"Were it not for that scarf I could probably read your expressions with greater ease."

"If you try to remove it, be prepared to fight for your life; my mom bought me this scarf when I set out on my own with Leon and Eva."

"Ah, so it's quite important to you, I can understand that."

"You know, this hairpin you gave me is important too. I actually feel a bit more durable when I wear this, both inside and outside of the labyrinth."

"It also looks good on you, so that's another plus."

She crosses her arms and shoots a pout in Cyrus' direction, though she failed to hide the blush on her face. "A smooth talker as always."

"Your face is red."

"Shut up."

The two pack up their belongings and continue forward, soon arriving at the northern entrance of the room that was blocked off at the southern end of the floor. Stepping inside, the two are met with one of the blue wolves they had spotted before. Oddly enough, this wolf wasn't charging at them on sight, instead holding its ground as it maintained a threatening pose and glared at the two adventurers. When they take a step towards the beast, it takes a step back.

Leaning closer to Lissa, Cyrus asks, "Does this feel off to you?"

"Yeah." She quickly scanned around the room, hoping to discern whatever trap this wolf had set for intruders. Disappointed with her lack of findings, she says, "I think this wolf is an opportunist; it won't attack us unless we're occupied with other monsters first."

"What do you propose we do? There's another wolf in here just to the south and we have need of a pelt. I…I don't feel right needlessly slaughtering one of these unprovoked."

"You're a real softy at heart, aren't you? Not that I don't agree with you; we may be able to get out of this without a fight. I'll take the rear and watch out for monsters while you lead the way."

Cyrus nods to this plan and the two work together to move past the wolves. They step into the next room and prepare to step through the next set of doors when Cyrus suddenly stops. His hands were still firmly placed on the doors, ready to pull them open at a moment's notice, but his eyes, stern and focused, seemed to be staring straight ahead. It was almost as if he was trying to see straight through the doors before him.

"What's the matter?"

"I'm testing out a new formula, one that allows me to see the location of all the F. in the area." Taking his hands off the doors, he pulls out the map of the floor and begins placing purple markings on various spots of it.

"I didn't know Alchemists could do something like that." She steps closer to him and studies the placement of these purple markings. "Whatever awaits us in the next room, it looks like it will take some doing to get past it."

A familiar voice sounds from behind the two; it was Ren, who appeared before Cyrus and Lissa while holding a bag filled with unknown contents. "You Alchemists have quite an assortment of tools at your disposal. Perhaps the contents of this bag will be useful to you."

Cyrus graciously accepts the bag and pulls out a silver sphere of some kind. He rotates this sphere in his grip in an attempt to discern its identity, a moment passing before his eyes widen. "Is this a flash bomb?"

"I'm surprised you're aware of the item; you'll find two others in that bag so feel free to use them at your own discretion. These will now be sold at Shilleka's Goods, as well as sonic bombs."

"If Fenrir is going to act the way I think it will, we'll want to save these for that battle. Thank you, Ren, we'll be sure to put these to good use."

"Glad I could help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some other matters to attend to; luck be with you, explorers." She then walks back the way she came, leaving Cyrus and Lissa back to their previous issue. Cyrus opens the doors to the next room, revealing there to be several obstructions in addition to the F. that filled the space. There were five F. in total; four were the blue wolves from before and one was a Reaping Shade.

"I don't think we can get out of here without first dealing with that Reaping Shade." She looks to Cyrus to silently ask for his plan of attack; she sees him loading two vials into his gauntlet; one was filled with some sort of black liquid, the other with white. "What…in the world is that?"

"I couldn't sleep last night so I spent some time with Alex in the library. The book he was reading was about Landsknechts but it gave me an idea for three formulae as well as a follow-up."

"Formulae? Isn't the plural for that word 'formulas'?"

He shrugs in response and says, "Either works where I'm from; now, for our strategy, we'll have to eliminate this blue wolf in front of us first. I'll need you to use a Bravant on me when we engage the Reaping Shade."

"Understood, I'm ready when you are."

The two rush at the blue wolf blocking their path, wasting no time engaging it in battle. The beast falls surprisingly quickly to Cyrus' fire spells, but the two had no time to skin the beast for its pelt, as the Reaping Shade was still charging right at them. Lissa tosses Cyrus the Bravant he requested and prepped her bow as he drank the concoction. The Reaping Shade was drawing dangerously close now, its scythe held high as it prepared to cut Cyrus down.

Lissa realized that her arrow wasn't going to be ready by the time the mantis was within striking distance so she called for Cyrus to fall back. Her eyes widened in shock as he stood his ground and stared at the Reaping Shade. He holds his gauntlet-wearing hand towards the mantis with his palm opened to it; his other hand was being used to stabilize it.

Suddenly, just as the scythe of the Reaping Shade came down, a glass-like wall appeared in front of Cyrus and completely negated the attack. The Alchemist then jumps back and the wall disappears. As it does so, a ball of flame starts to circle around Cyrus' gauntlet, one that he immediately throws at the Reaping Shade. Cyrus and the mantis go through this exchange once more before the mantis wises up and tries to feint an attack.

Anticipating this, Cyrus jumps over the oncoming scythe and activates the vial of black liquid, which causes his gauntlet to be surrounded by a dark aura. He then uses his now empowered gauntlet to punch the mantis in the face; as the dark aura fades, another ball of flame starts to encircle his left hand, which he fires at the mantis to finish it off.

The other blue wolves, seeing that the battle was over and they had lost their opening, quickly opted to return to their original posts. Lissa runs to Cyrus' side to check for injuries, sighing in relief when she finds him to have none. They quickly skin the fallen wolf for its pelt and give it a burial at Cyrus' request before continuing on with their exploration.

As they stepped into the next room, the two stretch and loudly sigh in relief at how their plan went off without a hitch. "What were those three formulas you used back there? I've never seen an Alchemist use those before."

"That glassy wall was the Light Formula, which blocks incoming physical attacks. The fireball that started swirling around my gauntlet is known as "Firelight", a somewhat unique spell that only activates when three specific formulae are triggered."

"I take it that black aura is one of those three triggers?"

"Indeed it is; that one is known as the Pain Formula. It is curious as well, as it is a formula that deals physical damage while somehow still relying on the user's magic potential."

"What about the third trigger?"

"It's known as the Light Tincture, which blocks elemental attacks. I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon, so I have time to perfect it. There is one thing about the Pain Formula that should be noted; the amount of time you have to use it once it's activated is incredibly short. Considering that you need to physically hit the enemy to use it, I don't think it's possible to activate it from the rear line and still have enough time to land the strike."

She nods to that and says, "That would explain why I've never seen it before; I can't think of any Alchemist that takes to the front lines. Still, I must say that I'm impressed; you're learning more about this role every day. I bet this'll all be second nature to you before you get back home."

"I certainly hope so." He looks around the small room he and Lissa were in, seeing another set of doors just ahead of their current position. "I really like it here in Etria; there's a certain kind of peace here that I don't think I have at home in Erdboden. If at all possible, I'd like to take vacations here…maybe bring my friends along for the ride."

"If that happens, I can show you all the best spots for camping out here on the first stratum."

"You do seem to know the place well."

"Leon, Eva, and I have spent a while gathering materials from this stratum, so we all have a firm grasp on it. Not so much for the second stratum though; we have yet to travel that far down. I'm not really sure I'd be able to protect those two either, since I'm not much with a bow."

"You can work on it in time, but for now you're really good when it comes to avoiding monsters, getting the drop on them, and treating wounds."

She giggles at the praise, feeling that Cyrus was giving her too much credit. "Those are all staples of being a Survivalist; I still have a long way to go. But just you wait; I'll get stronger and contribute to the fighting."

Cyrus smirks at her and simply replies, "I look forward to that day, Lissa; I'll be counting on you." With their short rest over, the two press on into the depths of the floor. Aside from the very next room, which contained two Ragelopes and another blue wolf Lissa eventually identified as a Skoll, the two progressed through large but empty rooms. Cyrus ended up stumbling into a secret passage that led to two treasure chests; one contained a jar filled with some sort of red liquid; the second chest contained a golden horn that neither of the two had seen before.

Progressing further placed the two at the top center of the floor, according to the map. Lissa removed an obstacle that was blocking an otherwise convenient shortcut to the ascending staircase of this floor. There was also a set of doors in this room, one that Cyrus hoped would lead to a descending staircase. The two approach the door with the intent to open it, but immediately freeze in place as the feeling of murderous intent overpowers them. A low but still audible growling sound could be heard past this door and the stench of wolf fur, as well as dried blood, could be caught wafting on the breeze.

Stepping away from the doors, Cyrus places a hand over his face in an effort to block off the smell. "I had used that formula to reveal the location of this one beast when we were at the southern end, but I never imagined that it'd have an aura quite like this."

"We'll need to tell the others to prepare for the upcoming battle. The stairs to the second stratum are just through these doors, but there's no way we're getting to them without a fight." Seeing that Cyrus was stepping up to the doors again, she asks, "What are you doing?"

"I need to observe Fenrir and devise a strategy for the others to use; I want us taking no chances with this." Without waiting to hear Lissa's retort, he pulls the doors open and cautiously steps inside alongside her. The descending staircase was a straight shot from the door and the room was empty. "That can't be right," Cyrus thought aloud, "the presence we felt…it's still here."

A moment of silence passes before a large blue and white wolf with black horns extending from its head emerged from the thicket of the floor's trees. It was from this creature that the hostility Cyrus and Lissa had felt was being exuded. Lissa found herself stepping closer to Cyrus as she said, "That must be Fenrir." The large wolf then howls to the sky and summons four Skolls to its location, forming a wall in front of the staircase as they stared down the two intruders.

Lissa was both surprised and relieved to find that Fenrir and its pack were perfectly content to just watch their movements without charging in for a fight. She nudges Cyrus' arm and whispers, "I can feel the presence of at least three more Skolls in the thicket behind us; engaging Fenrir will be a battle to the finish, just as Nagato told us."

"I've gotten the information I need, so let's depart; we have a battle to prepare for." He then kneels to the ground and uses the Return Formula to send him and Lissa just outside of Etria's city gates. After gaining entry from the guards, the two decide to turn in their reports to the pub before returning to the Archive.

_Author's Notes: This chapter ended up running a lot longer than I thought it would, but I am happy with how it turned out. By now you've likely noticed that, game-wise, my character builds are rather unorthodox. In my attempt to integrate my in-game choices with the story I wish to tell, I've put quite a bit of thought into how things should progress to make this enjoyable for the readers. I'll let you be the judge of how effective my methods are._


	12. Fenrir, the Alpha Wolf

**Chapter 12: Fenrir, the Alpha Wolf**

Stepping into the bar to turn in their reports, Cyrus and Lissa are almost instantly drawn to the sight of the portly merchant slumped over his table with several empty mugs of ale surrounding him as if they were some sort of barricade. It was a depressing sight, a stark contrast to his usual down-to-business attitude. Although they were both in a hurry, Lissa and Cyrus couldn't help but approach him to see what was troubling him.

He lifts his head up, knocking over a few of the mugs in the process. His eyes were red and puffy, suggesting that quite some time was spent shedding tears of woe. '_But what could have happened?_' Cyrus thought to himself, '_We've only been gone for a few hours at best…_'

The pitiful sight of the merchant was becoming unbearable for Lissa to look at, so she cut to the chase; "What in the world happened to you?"

The merchant wipes his face and takes in a breath; he didn't want to show it, but he had yet to shed all of his sorrows through his tears, and was on the verge of having another breakdown. A few silent moments pass before he's composed enough to explain the reason for the sight the duo was seeing.

"I was on my way back from the mining point on the third floor when two giant mantises tried to attack me! I escaped with my life but my entire fortune is gone! All of that hard work…" He sniffled at the thought, his eyes beginning to well up with tears again.

Cyrus says, "I could go to the third floor and see what's left of your belongings if you'd like," which elicits surprised looks from the patrons around him. The merchant wanted to question him, but found that no words would arrive when he tried to speak. Shaking his head in disappointment, Cyrus continues, "You got greedy and were punished for it, but I don't feel as if you're a bad person. Use whatever my guild can salvage as your means of starting anew and learn from your mistakes."

"Cyrus, we should get going now; if we're going to slay Fenrir and recover his belongings before nightfall we'll have to move swiftly." He silently nods to her and the two step up to Valerie to make their report. Having obtained their rewards, the duo quickly leaves the Golden Deer Pub and heads back to the Archive. Stepping inside, they are greeted with the sight of Alex and Nagato having an arm-wrestling contest, with Alex's arm promptly slamming to the table with a thud.

"Damn it! That's the third time in a row!"

Nagato flexes and dons an arrogant smirk on his face as he says, "It is the way of nature to lose to the strongest, Alex."

"The strongest?! I can't let that one slide, my friend; gonna have to knock ya down a few pegs."

"You can try, but you shall fall like all the others." He notices Lissa and Cyrus standing at the entrance and says, "Ah, you two have returned; how was the fifth floor?"

"Absurdly large with too many dead ends," Lissa says with a slight growl.

"More importantly, our way to the second stratum, and by extension the Geomagnetic Field, is being blocked by Fenrir."

"So we have to fight it after all?"

"That's not all, Lucy; it's going to be a fight to the death, and Fenrir intends to overpower us with superior numbers."

Lissa quickly follows, "It has four wolves flanking it, two to either side; there are also at least three more wolves waiting in the thicket to be called upon."

"Once those wolves are summoned, you'll be boxed in with no means of escape."

Alex asks, "What if we beat Fenrir before they join?"

"The Skolls will back off, from what Lissa and I have observed."

"Then this will be simple," Nagato declares. "All we need to do is throw everything at him before the other wolves show up."

"That's where you're wrong," Cyrus bluntly replied.

"What? How am I wrong? Overpowering the enemy is easy!"

The air grew still and heavy as the expression on Cyrus' face darkened into a sinister smirk. Seeing this, Lucy taps the others on the shoulder and directs them to the meeting table. After everyone sat themselves, Cyrus did the same, taking a seat at the end of the table directly across from Alex. The look in his dual colored eyes was cold, focused solely on devising a strategy that would bring his allies to victory.

He shoots his gaze to Nagato and says, "Thinking of battle in such a basic manner is the mark of a novice, Nagato." The look of offense that appeared on Nagato's face was almost indescribable. The Ronin could not comprehend what he was just called, even less so in regards to the person who made the comment. "In war…in battles that truly matter, it's not about overpowering your enemy; it's about taking away what power they have."

Ignoring the devilish smirk on Cyrus' face, Mitsuki asks, "How do you suggest we take away Fenrir's power? I mean, do we even know what power it has?"

"You guys don't at the moment, but I do, and I shall tell you."

Alex raised an eyebrow to this; "How did you devise a strategy without actually fighting Fenrir?"

"I've spent a lot of time in the wild, facing off against packs of Behemoths and wolves alike."

Nagato's only response to that was, "The Hell is a Behemoth?"

"OK, Boss, I don't want to be that guy, but can you tell us if there's a perilous situation that you haven't been in? Are you ever not in a state where your entire existence in on the line?"

Lucy turns her head to Cyrus and smirks mischievously at him. "He has a point, Cyrus."

He blushes and frowns as he looks down at the table, unable to retort to either Alex or Lucy. To quickly bring the subject back to the matter at hand, he says, "Anyway, I can give you all an edge in the upcoming battle. First off, Fenrir is weak to fire."

Lily asks, "How do you know that?"

"My left eye reacts to all things related to the flow of aether, including disturbances in the area flowing around creatures and people. For example," he says as he looks to Nagato, "Nagato here is weak to ice."

The Ronin in question jumped in his seat at that. "How the Hell did yo- what else does that funny-looking eye do for you?!"

"It strengthens various gems and minerals, boosting their inherent effects."

"What kind of purpose does that serve?"

"Gems have all sorts of uses Nagato," Lily says, almost admonishing him for his lack of knowledge.

Mitsuki follows, "Some are used in medicinal practices for great effect; being able to improve those effects would be a boon to the industry."

"But for uses that would benefit you," Lucy begins, "all gems are tied to an element. The Garnet family, just to name one, strengthens anything related to fire. Having Cyrus boost the potential of such a gem and turning it into a wristlet for you would improve your arsenal immensely."

Nagato simply grunts his acknowledgement of the information his team was throwing at him, though he remained unconvinced. Returning to the subject matter, Cyrus continues, "Because of this weakness, I assume Fenrir will use ice-based attacks; so far, we only have one way to stop such attacks, although the method is not permanent. Lucy will have to use her whip to keep its mouth sealed."

"I can handle that much, so I'll leave the damage dealing to Alex and Nagato."

Placing the bag filled with flash bombs on the table, Lissa says, "Ren gave us these bombs to use."

"These flash bombs will momentarily disorient the other wolves, so use them if they start to close in on the fight. Shilleka also has sonic bombs in stock, which will emit a noise that will disrupt Fenrir if it tries to prep an attack. However…"

"I something wrong, young master?"

"You see, Madame Rosa, Nagato is a half-wolf, so I'm afraid the sonic bombs will affect him as well. I'd rather we go without those if that were at all possible."

"So we'd have to kill Fenrir faster than those Skolls can join the fray, yes?"

"That is correct, Lily. In order to pull this off, Fenrir needs to fall within the amount of time it takes for Nagato to assume his overhead stance and use Flame Grater three times."

"With Lily's Frailty Curse and my empowering songs, I'm sure we can manage that," Mitsuki says while executing a fist pump. "Actually, we have some Bravants here in the Archive too! We might be able to use those to get Nagato and Alex over the hump."

"A sound suggestion, Mitsuki. Now, since Alex lacks the means to follow up on elemental attacks right now, we're going to have to resort to some rather…extremely cruel and petty countermeasures."

"You want me to bash Fenrir across the skull repeatedly to make sure it can't use any techniques, right?"

"Precisely."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you, Boss."

"Yes, Cyrus can be quite cruel when he wants to be."

"Y'all some messed up people," Nagato says with a disgruntled look on his face. "So the plan is to disable the bastard and then go for hyper offense? Is that what I'm to take from this?"

"Yes, that is correct. Be sure to take an Ariadne Thread with you and when you emerge victorious stop at the pub; Lissa, Eva, Leon, Madame Rosa, and I will all be waiting for you there." He then hands a vial filled with gray liquid to Lily and says, "A drop of this will create the magic circle for the Return Formula; if you visualize the staircase leading to the fifth floor as your destination, you'll end up there instead of outside the city gates."

"That's…how in the world did you pull that off?"

"We can discuss alchemy in detail after you come back from defeating Fenrir, my dear."

"You heard the Boss," Alex says as he stands and rests his axe on his shoulder, "let's go out and kick some ass!"

The guild cheers at the sound of Alex's call for action and the Landsknecht's group departs first. Rosa appeared a tad bit fidgety, hesitating as the others prepared to depart. Seeing the rather nervous look in her purple eyes, Eva asks, "Is something the matter, Rosa?"

"I've never been to a pub before…"

"Oh, is that all? Don't you worry about a thing; Eva and I will be there with you until the others get back."

"Cyrus and I will be back soon; we have one last request to handle."

"I surmise that this one won't take long either."

"I see…well, do be careful out there; we shall await your return."

The two nod at that and set off for the Yggdrasil Labyrinth once more. The duo arrives at the same time as the main group, having dashed to catch up to them. Upon entering the labyrinth, Lily uses this new Return Formula and warps her group to the staircase leading to the fifth floor. As the light around her fades, she marvels at the successful attempt, a slight smile forming on her face as she looks down to the vial in her hand.

She pulls out the map for the fifth floor as she directs the others down the flight of stairs. As they reach the shortcut, Lucy steps beside Lily to look at that map, her eyes widening in slight surprise at the sight of it. "Lissa wasn't kidding; this floor is incredibly large."

"Kinda glad we didn't have to go through it," Mitsuki admits, "but that does mean we ended up doing less training."

"Yes, that will catch up to us in the future," Nagato says as he crosses his arms. "Unless the future strata are as piss easy as this one, we'll have to worry about making time to train later."

"So you're not confident in us getting home as soon as we reach the second stratum?"

"Oh, please, Lily; if life were that easy, neither of the Cyrus-es we know would be as mental as they are."

Lucy crosses her arms at Nagato's words but could find little fault in them. "Can't say Nagato's wrong for thinking that way; life is a constant struggle, one that always gets the jump on you."

"We won't know until we beat Fenrir, so let's get this taken care of."

A few minutes of walking puts Alex's team in front of the door leading to Fenrir. They step inside to see the alpha wolf still barring access to the staircase, along with its group of four Skolls. The team can see Fenrir sniffing the air for a moment before it turns its sights to Nagato. It then lets out a low growl before barking once at the young Ronin.

Nagato's eye twitched at this; whatever Fenrir had just said did not sit well with him. He bares his own fangs at the much larger wolf and shouts, almost in a barking manner, "Filth?! Alright, you low-class trash, no one calls Yasujiro Nagato filth! You better hope you burn to death, because I intend to skin you alive and make you watch as I wear your mane as a cape!" He immediately turns to Alex, a look of determination and pure rage upon his countenance, and shouts, "Alex! Give the order!"

Alex smirks at that and says, "You guys know the plan, so let's take this beast down; Seekers! Charge!" His call to battle is heeded without delay; Nagato wastes no time drawing his katana and assuming his upper stance as Lucy smacks Fenrir, who was charging at the group at full speed, across the face with her whip. The wolf roars in defiance at that, only to find itself growing weaker, more vulnerable as Lily chanted the Frailty Curse.

Mitsuki sang a song of the brave deeds of heroes; while Nagato didn't particularly care for the melody, he, as well as the others, found themselves being empowered by it. Fenrir seemed to completely ignore Lucy's efforts to bind its head and charged right for Nagato. The Ronin stands unfettered as the large wolf lunged at him with bared fangs, channeling fire magic into the blade of his katana. Just as Fenrir drew within biting distance, Alex dashes in and slams the blunt end of his axe into Fenrir's face, breaking a few of its fangs and drawing blood; this gives Nagato the chance to swing his katana and hit Fenrir with Flame Grater, sending the leader of the pack sliding along the grass.

The Landsknecht swings his axe to the side to remove the blood from its blade; as he rests it on his shoulder, he looks to the recovering wolf and says, "It'll be a cold day in Hell before I let you hurt one of my teammates." Lucy dashes ahead and successfully binds Fenrir's muzzle with her whip, giving Lily and Mitsuki an opportunity to give Alex and Nagato a Bravant.

The surrounding Skolls were closing in now, but Alex and Nagato weren't worried. They smirk at each other and charge at Fenrir, unleashing all of their power to finish off the beast. Before they could do so, however, Fenrir broke free from Lucy's grip, tossing her to Lily in the process. It unleashes a roar to the sky that sends a shiver down the spines of Nagato, Lucy, and Mitsuki, leaving the two ladies momentarily paralyzed with fear.

Nagato, in all of his defiance, channels fire into his katana and swings at the mighty wolf with all of his being. Fenrir gives one last dying howl before collapsing to the ground. Nagato sheathes his katana as the Skolls immediately flee the area and speaks to the abandoned alpha wolf, which still had a sliver of life left within it. Speaking softly, yet harshly, Nagato says, "I fear no one, foolish mutt, now die and fade into obscurity." Fenrir utters one last growl before sighing as his life finally leaves him. As promised, Nagato skins the wolf of his mane and drapes it over his shoulders. '_Yes, this will do nicely._'

Alex holds his axe to the sky and cheers loudly over their victory. The others soon join in, finding their leader's jubilation to be infectious. Looking to the unbarred staircase, Lucy wonders aloud, "Should we check out the second stratum now?"

"Cyrus would be the only one capable of messing with the Geomagnetic Field, so we should just head back." Nagato then rolls his shoulders and yawns obnoxiously. "Besides, I'm hungry as Hell right now."

Lily laughs at Nagato's lax behavior just before her own stomach growls incredibly loudly. "I guess I'm in agreement with Nagato. Shall we get going then?" The others nod to her and warp back to Etria using an Ariadne Thread. They head to the pub, just as Cyrus instructed, and are greeted with the sight of the five members they left behind sitting at a table near the center of the bar. Seeing the wolf's mane draped around Nagato's neck, the bar erupts into sudden cheer as they all take a seat.

"Welcome back everyone, and good work dispatching Fenrir."

"Your strategy was well thought out as always, Cyrus."

"Thank you, Lucy; I'm glad to see that all of you are safe."

Lissa studied the five who faced Fenrir with focused eyes. She eventually says, "There isn't a scratch to be found; their clothes aren't even torn."

Nagato smirks at her and replies, "Oh, a thousand pardons, Lissa; did you wish to see my manly physique? I must warn you that these biceps are not for the faint of heart."

"Eh? Why would I want to see you without your shirt on?"

The poor boy was completely deflated at that comment, slumping to the table as he sighs loudly. This display gets a laugh out of everyone at the table. "I've just been insulted by a child; I don't deserve to live on this planet anymore."

"Ch- CHILD?! I'm eighteen you little shrew!"

"What?! You're older than me?! But you're so tiny!"

"Oh, we'll see how tiny I am when I break every bone in your body twice over." She suddenly felt the hat on her head being removed and a hand ruffling her brown hair; grabbing the hand and looking to its owner, she sees Cyrus grinning at her. Blushing, she asks, "And just what do you think you're doing?!"

"You're adorable when you get angry. I must admit that I thought you were at least two years younger than me. I guess big things truly come in small packages."

"Stop calling me small!" She frowns and slightly turns away from him, leaving just enough of her face visible to show Cyrus that she was clearly cross with him. "I am not tiny, dammit," she mutters to herself. At that same moment, her eyes take on a sad look as her gaze shifts to the table. "The four of you might be leaving Etria soon, huh?"

Cyrus leans back slightly in his chair, his attention turning towards Lucy. "We could check out that Geomagnetic Field now, but I don't really feel as if I'm in a hurry to go back home. It might even be advantageous to stay here for awhile."

Lucy raises an eyebrow to that, partially confused by Cyrus' levity of the situation. "How do you figure as much?"

"The way I see it, if time is still moving forward in Erdboden, then the fact that I've disappeared from the face of the planet could provoke the emperor of the Alabaster Empire to call off the war. He's basically won since I'm gone so he has no reason to continue the fight. People could finally stop throwing their lives away over something so pointless…over some kid who doesn't matter in the first place."

It was then that the Alchemist felt a tug at both of his cheeks. The amount of force being applied to his face was indescribable and completely caught him off guard, only leaving him able to make incomprehensible noises as the tugging persisted. His assailants were Lucy and Lissa, who both sported frowns on their faces and eyes of fury.

In unison, they say, "Stop that nonsense; you definitely matter."

"Yeah, Boss, if it wasn't for you, who knows where Mitsuki and I'd be right now."

"As much as I hate to admit it," Nagato begins, "you were the one who came up with the plan to kill Fenrir…and we walked out of the fight without a scratch because of that plan."

"We'll hate to see you go, you know; it's fun having you as a leader…even if you have a few screws loose."

"I don't strike you as that crazy, do I, Mitsuki?"

Everyone at the table responds in an affirmative manner, causing Cyrus to blush and tilt his head towards the table. A thought occurs to him and he suggests they all make a trip to the Radha. With Fenrir dead, it would be prudent to inform the Radha that the first stratum was safe to explore again, and, perhaps even more important, that the second stratum was open for exploration once more. Cyrus voices this to his team, which they all agree to.

The main team, along with Cyrus and Lissa, depart from the pub and head to the Radha Hall. Once there, the subaltern grants them an audience immediately. "So you have bested Fenrir? Excellent work, Seekers; you have performed us a tremendous service on this day." Quinn then calls for a soldier to bring the guild their monetary compensation, which consists of a few thousand ental. "Now then, in regards to the Geomagnetic Field, have you investigated it?"

Alex steps forward and explains, "Not yet, sir; our leader wasn't with us when we engaged Fenrir so we thought it would be best to have him in tow before going to investigate."

"I see. Very well then; should your research prove to yield the desired results, please report here before you travel back to your own world. It wouldn't do to have four members of the town's popular rising guild suddenly disappear without explanation."

"Yes," Cyrus says with a nod, "that could potentially cause panic, or worse, discourage others from exploring beyond the Emerald Grove. We'd like to begin our investigation now, if that would be fine with you."

"Yes, of course; the sooner your guild can make progress the better. I expect to hear from you all soon, so I bid you good luck in your investigation."

The team nods to him and quickly returns to the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. They make their way to the room on the fifth floor where Fenrir once resided; the room was empty, which was to be expected, but Cyrus and Lissa were rather surprised that the Skolls weren't nearby. With the hostile presences now gone, the medium-sized clearing felt serene. Sadly, the group would not be able to lounge here, as they had a job to do.

Stepping down the descending staircase presented the Seekers with a stark change in scenery. The Emerald Grove was a lush forest with vibrant colors, cool breezes, and an overall relaxing atmosphere…after subtracting all of the Tree Rats trying to eat people and the Woodflies buzzing around giving poor explorers headaches.

This new stratum, in comparison, was dark, much darker than the Emerald Grove, even when the sun had set. The air felt thick and heavy and the sudden climate shift hit Alex as if he had crashed into a steel wall. The group had transitioned from a beautiful forest to an oppressive jungle. Cyrus and Lucy appeared to be fine, despite the two both wearing leather clothing. Though, in Lucy's case, she was likely fine because she wasn't wearing much at all.

The group takes its first step into the jungle, with a towering pillar of pink light shining into the hall of the stratum. Before anyone can take a step towards it, the sound of footsteps descending the staircase behind them catches their attention. Turning around, the guild is met with the sight of Ren and Tlachtga stepping down into the stratum. The Ronin held her usual intense stare while her partner stood next to her, ever silent and expressionless.

"You have done well to best Fenrir, Seekers," Ren says after a long silence. "That pink light you see behind you is the Geomagnetic Field; the Radha has informed us that you are here to investigate it for some reason or another."

Tlachtga steps forward and dons an expression of concern as she looks to Lily and Cyrus. "The Primitive Jungle houses strong monsters…be careful if you travel as a pair." The two explorers in question look to each other before quickly blushing and averting eye contact.

"Yes, Tlachtga is right; the beasts you'll find down here are leagues apart from those found within the Emerald Grove." She looks to the trees surrounding the explorers and sighs to herself, her stern expression softening somewhat. "I suggest you all practice caution while you're down here. We'll leave you to your work; good luck out there."

Ren turns around and proceeds back up the stairs without another word; Tlachtga gives a slight bow to the Seekers before turning around and following after her partner. The team exchanges silent glances amongst each other before turning towards the Geomagnetic Field, which Cyrus was already making contact with. As his hand is touched to the pink pillar, a pink light seems to envelop him and his guild mates. No harm comes to them, at least not from what they could discern, but they dash over to the pillar to question their leader.

"It would appear that the Guildmaster was right; we can use this to warp back to Etria whenever we want."

"And for teleporting elsewhere?"

Cyrus shuts his eyes for a moment, trying to concentrate on both the potential of the field and a means of answering Lily's question. He sighs to himself and looks to her with a stern yet apologetic look on his face. "It doesn't appear as if this field is strong enough to teleport us elsewhere. My Runic Eye is reacting to it, albeit faintly."

Lucy steps forward and asks, "Does that mean there may be other fields like this one?"

"It's definitely possible, but we'd likely have to clear this new stratum as well."

"More dungeon-crawling," Nagato says with an exasperated sigh, "how wonderful."

"This is actually starting to remind me of the Seven Hells; they had a setup quite similar to this labyrinth, although the Emerald Grove was far more forgiving than the First Hell…and had less fire. At any rate, we should head back now and make our report to the Radha. Perhaps calling it an early day is in order as well."

The Alchemist looked rather distraught, uncertain of the challenges his guild was going to face in the near future. As he turned his worried gaze back to the Geomagnetic Field he asked himself, '_Can I be the leader these explorers see me as? I'd seek Leslie's counsel if she were here…what if I can't get Princess Lucille back home?_' Then his eyes widened. '_Oh Hell, what's going to happen to the others if we don't get back?_'

When a hand was placed on his shoulder, Cyrus jumped at the sudden contact and let out a short yelp in surprise. He quickly turns to face his addressor, who turns out to be Lucy, who, along with the others, was staring at him worriedly. He tried to pass off that startling jump with a half-hearted laugh, turning his gaze towards the ground and rubbing the back of his head to make it appear as if embarrassment was the subject on his mind.

Lucy wasn't buying his ruse, her worried look changing to one of sympathy as she stepped closer to him. She moved herself in front of him and gently placed a hand under his chin, lifting his head so that his eyes were staring into her own. For a moment, Lucy's stare was but a blank expression, which soon became a warm smile as her blue eyes shot a caring stare at Cyrus. Though his mind was still troubled, Cyrus managed to give a light smile to Lucy in return; he then nods to her and steps away to adjust the fedora on his head.

Looking to the others, he says, "Sorry about that, everyone; come, let's return to Etria…it's hot as Hell in this place."

_Author's Notes: The story is not over yet, readers; the journey through the Primitive Jungle starts in the next one so I hope you'll all look forward to it. Let me know what you think of the series so far!_


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